BS 2777 
.M6 

Copy 1 




Copyright^ 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSITS 



OUTLINE STUDIES 

IN THE 

New Testament 



CATHOLIC EPISTLES— JAMES, I AND II 
PETER, I, II, III JOHN, AND JUDE 



BY 

WILLIAM G. MOOREHEAD 

Professor in the Xenia Theological Seminary 



'* Other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours, 1 * 



PITTSBURGH, PA. N 

UNITED PRESBYTERIAN BOARD 
OF PUBLICATION 



Copyrighted, 1910 

BY 

THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF 
PUBLICATION 

Pittsburgh, Pa. 



©GLA25938.6 



This book completes the Studies in the New Testa- 
ment by the undersigned. If his work has contributed 
in any degree to a clearer and fuller understanding of 
these wonderful Scriptures, no one will rejoice more 
heartily than the writer. 

William G. Moorehead. 
Xenia Theological Seminary. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Epistle of James 6 

"Lord's Brother" 9 

Address and Date 12 

Analysis 16 

Temptations 18 

Prayer and Healing 21 

The Tongue 24 

Barren Orthodoxy 27 

First Peter 30 

Peter's Primacy 32 

Place of Composition — Babylon 36 

Notable Features 38 

Analysis 43 

Prominent Topics 44 

Prophets and their Study 48 

Preaching to the Spirits in Prison 51 

Second Peter 68 

Jude Quotes from 2 Peter 72 

Peter's Three Worlds 79 

First Epistle of John 87 

God is Light 94 

God is Love 104 

Design of i John 115 

Second John , 121 

V 



vi CONTENTS 

PAGK 

Third John 123 

Jude 127 

Description of Apostates 131 

Seven Marks of Apostacy 134 

Sons of God and Daughters of Men 136 

Enoch's Prediction 142 



EPISTLE OF JAMES 



The seven epistles, commonly called Catholic or 
General, are the subjects of the present study. With 
the epistle of James we are first to deal. 

Can the James whose name is attached to this 
epistle be identified? Several persons bearing the 
name are mentioned in the New Testament, e. g., 
James the son of Zebedee John's brother, James the 
son of Alphaeus, James the Less, and James the 
Lord's brother. There is good reason to regard James 
the son of Alphaeus and James the Less as one and 
the same person (cf. Mark xv: 40; xvi: 1; John 
xix: 25). Three of the name appear to be distin- 
guished from each other, viz. : James the son of 
Zebedee, James the son of Alphaeus, and James the 
Lord's brother. 

Which of these three was the writer of the epistle? 
James the son of Zebedee is excluded by the fact that 
it was written probably after his martyrdom by Herod, 
A. D. 44. James the son of Alphaeus seems also to be 
excluded because there is no evidence that he was 
specially prominent as a teacher in Jerusalem, whereas 
the contents of the epistle and the Acts attest the pres- 

7 



8 



EPISTLE OF JAMES. 



ence of a James in the holy city who held a conspicu- 
ous and influential place. Besides, the writer of the 
epistle does not call himself an apostle; he speaks of 
himself simply as "a servant of God and of the 
Lord Jesus Christ" (i: i). Ordinarily, when a writer 
of an epistle gives his name he affixes also his title. 
Now James son of Alphaeus was an apostle, but James 
the Lord's brother was not. In Gal. i : 19 he seems to 
be included in the number, but the construction of the 
sentence in that place does not warrant such a con- 
clusion: "But other of the apostles saw I none, save 
James the Lord's brother." The margin of the Re- 
vised Version reads, "but only James the Lord's 
brother," which sets him apart from the apostle Peter 
whom Paul visited on this occasion. (Cf. Rom. xiv: 
14; Luke iv: 26, 27, for a like construction.) In 
1 Cor. xv : 7 — "then he appeared to James" — the order 
of the words seems to imply that James is rather to 
be distinguished from than included among the 
apostles. Had James son of Alphaeus written this 
letter he would in all probability have inserted his 
title of apostle. Since this is absent, the inference 
seems legitimate that the writer was not an apostle. 
Besides, Jude describes himself as "a servant of Jesus 
Christ, and brother of James" (ver. 1) — language 
which denotes that Jude anticipates a respectful hear- 
ing of his message because of his relationship to the 
influential James. In the family of Joseph and Mary 
there were both a James and a Jude (Mark vi: 3), 
and it is altogether likely that the two named in 
Jude's epistle were precisely these two sons, and 



EPISTLE OF JAMES. 



9 



hence the "Lord's brothers." But neither of them 
was an apostle, though bound to the Lord Jesus by 
the closest ties, as we shall presently see. 

On the whole, the evidence points unmistakably to 
James "the Lord's brother" (Gal. i: 19) as the author 
of our epistle. He was one of the most conspicuous 
members of the apostolic church. He was the chief 
pastor and principal teacher of the church of Jeru- 
salem. It was he who with Peter and John gave the 
right hand of fellowship to Paul and Barnabas 
(Gal. ii: 9), to whom Peter sent the tidings of his de- 
liverance from prison (Acts xii: 17), and who, to- 
gether with the elders, received Paul and his com- 
panions on their arrival in Jerusalem with the gifts 
of Gentile churches for the needy saints (Acts xxi: 
18). It was this James who took so prominent a part 
in the Council of Jerusalem (Acts xv), and who 
offered the resolution as we moderns would say, which 
was unanimously adopted by that .assembly. Peter at 
Antioch for a time held fellowship with Gentile Chris- 
tians, but when certain came from James he drew back 
and refused longer to eat with them, so great was 
James' influence (Gal. ii: 11, 12). 

But now what relationship is meant by the ex- 
pression, "the Lord's brother?" Frequent mention is 
made of the Lord's brethren (Matt, xii: 46; Mark vi: 
3 ; John vii : 3, 5 ; 1 Cor. ix : 5 ; Gal. i : 19). In Mark 
vi: 3 we read, "Is not this the carpenter, the son of 
Mary, and brother of James, and Judas, and Simon? 
And are not his sisters here with us ?" This was said 
by the people of Nazareth who were well acquainted 



10 



EPISTLE OF JAMES. 



with the family and with Jesus' relation to it. They 
speak of His brothers, naming them, and of His sisters, 
and of His mother. In Acts i : 14 "his brethren" are 
distinguished from the apostles, from the disciples, 
and from the mother Mary. What kinship did He 
sustain to these "brothers" and "sisters ?" Cousins of 
Jesus they could hardly be, for the term "brother" is 
never used in this sense in the New Testament. If 
they were the children of Cleopas (Alphaeus), whose 
wife was Mary (John xix: 25), who was sister to 
Mary the mother of Jesus, as Jerome and many after 
him believe, then we have two sisters of the same 
name, a most unlikely thing. But the text in John 
xix: 25 does not necessarily mean that the mother's 
sister was the wife of Cleopas ; rather, we understand 
John to say this — "His mother and His mother's sister, 
Mary of Cleopas and Mary Magdalene." Four 
women are here mentioned, not three. Mark xv: 40 
informs us that one of the women who beheld the 
crucifixion was Salome, and John does not name her 
because she was his own mother, and she was sister 
to Jesus' mother. 

The natural inference from the biblical statements 
as to our Lord's brethren is this: His brothers and 
sisters were the children of Joseph and Mary born to 
them after the birth of Jesus. The intelligent reader 
of the Bible, uninfluenced by preconceptions, would 
certainly infer so much. It was superstitious rever- 
ence for the mother of Jesus and for the dogma of her 
perpetual virginity that led men to affix other meanings 
to the terms "brother," "brethren" and "sisters" than 



EPISTLE OF JAMES. 



II 



the natural one. Accordingly, the conjecture is that 
Joseph was a widower when he and Mary were mar- 
ried, and that he had sons and daughters by a former 
wife, and these were His "brethren." There is no 
hint in Scripture of this: it is pure conjecture. He 
who holds that Psalm lxix is Messianic, and that it in 
point of fact expresses the feelings and experiences 
of the Messiah, that in it Messiah does actually speak, 
as the writer unhesitatingly does, has a scriptural 
definition of the Lord's "brethren:" "I am become a 
stranger unto my brethren, and an alien to my 
mother's children," Psalms lxix : 8 ; cf . Luke ii : 7 — 
"her firstborn son." 

The Lord's brethren did not receive Him as Mes- 
siah. John says, "Even his brethren did not believe on 
him" (John vii : 3-5). Mark informs us that at one 
time they entertained serious doubts as to His sanity; 
they thought He was "beside himself," and with the 
mother Alary they sought to arrest Him and to take 
Him home with them (Mark iii: 21, 31). It is note- 
worthy that it was but a few months before His cruci- 
fixion when John affirms the disbelief of Jesus' 
brethren. Indeed, it seems that it was not until He 
was risen from the dead these "brethren" cordially re- 
ceived Him as Messiah and were identified with the 
apostles and disciples (Acts i: 13-15). It is thought 
by some, Light foot among the number, that James, the 
Lord's brother, was converted when the risen Saviour 
appeared to him (1 Cor. xv: 7). If, therefore, James 
the son of Alphaeus and James the Lord's brother are 
identical and that it was he who wrote our epistle, it 



12 



EPISTLE OF JAMES. 



follows that he was both a disciple and apostle before 
he was a believer in Christ during the whole period of 
the public ministry, and even up to and beyond the 
crucifixion — which appears to us quite an untenable 
position. 

Legends and traditions have gathered about the 
name of James, most of which are fanciful and un- 
historical. Some things have been preserved of him 
that may have some foundation of truth. It is re- 
lated that he was called by the people The Just, a 
tribute to his uprightness and integrity. He was a 
thorough Israelite, a strict observer of the Law, but 
not a mere formalist. His course in the Jerusalem 
Council proves he was tolerant and had a large and 
wise view of Christian liberty. In all essentials he was 
in complete accord with Paul (Acts xxi: 18-26). 

There is a story connected with the Lord's appearing 
to James after the resurrection which, however doubt- 
ful, is worth relating: At Jesus' death James vowed 
he would eat no bread until he saw Him risen from the 
dead. When the Saviour appeared to him He said, 
"My brother, eat thy bread, for the Son of Man is 
risen from among them that sleep." He died as a 
martyr. 

James addresses the Twelve Tribes of the Disper- 
sion (i: 1). The term Dispersion is very comprehen- 
sive. Jews were found everywhere throughout the 
vast Roman Empire, and even beyond its limits. We 
know from Acts ii: 9- 11 that devout Hebrews came 
from Elam in the far east and from Rome in the west 
to be present at the annual feast of the Passover held 



EPISTLE OF JAMES. 



13 



in Jerusalem. Christians were found among these 
dispersed tribes, and these James addresses in much 
of the spirit and temper of an Old Testament 
prophet. 

At first sight the epistle appears to be entirely legal. 
It reminds us of portions of Deuteronomy and of 
Proverbs. As is well known, Luther objected to it 
mainly on this score, calling it "a right strawy 
epistle." So did Erasmus, Cardinal Cajetan and 
others. It must be remembered that James wrote to 
believing Jews who still held fast to Moses and the 
Law. They needed just such exhortations and warn- 
ings as he so frequently and powerfully employs. 
Faith, obedience, humility, patience and love were 
graces they lacked and needed, and these he urges on 
them with the authority and force of a teacher in 
Israel. 

Furthermore, the epistle is an echo of the Saviour's 
teaching. It is closely connected with the Sermon on 
the Mount. "There is scarcely a thought in it which 
cannot be traced to Christ's personal teaching. If 
John has lain on the Saviour's bosom, James has sat 
at His feet" (Scott). There are more than fifteen 
unmistakable references in it to the truths taught in 
the Sermon, and in some instances the correspondence 
is almost verbally exact. 

It was written at Jerusalem. The date is not so 
easily fixed. Some things, however, may help to 
locate the time with proximate certainty. It is quite 
probable that James the Lord's brother was martyred 
about A. D. 62. The apostle Peter, in his first epistle, 



EPISTLE OF JAMES. 



quotes largely from James (cf. i Peter i: 6, 7; James 
i: 2; 1 Peter i: 24; James i: 10, 11; 1 Peter iv: 8; 
James v: 20; 1 Peter v: 5, 6, 8; James iv: 6, 7). At 
the time Peter wrote James* letter must have been 
well known, and accredited as both genuine and au- 
thoritative. Accordingly, it must have been written 
some years before First Peter. 

The epistle moves within the circle of Judaic Chris- 
tianity, and it belongs to its first stage. Certain ex- 
pressions in it could be used with great effect by the 
Judaizers to impose their legalistic dogmas on Gen- 
tile believers, e. g. (ii: 10), "For whosoever shall keep 
the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty 
of all." This statement could be easily perverted into 
the support of a rigorous observance of the Mosaic 
rites. That the Judaizers did thus employ such pas- 
sages appears evident from Acts xv: 24. It is there 
asserted that some had gone from Jerusalem to Anti- 
och and other places whose chief aim it was to im- 
pose Judaism on Gentile Christians, and they claimed 
that James and other influential disciples sanctioned 
their teaching. But the claim is denied — "To whom 
we gave no commandment." The inference seems 
legitimate that the epistle was written before the 
meeting of the Council held in Jerusalem, i. e., before 
A. D. 51. This conclusion is strengthened by the fact 
that James never once alludes to the controversy at 
Antioch ; never once does he mention circumcision, the 
heart of that bitter contention. What he vigorously 
insists on are moral precepts and Christian duties com- 
mon to all believers, Jew and Gentile alike, and not 



EPISTLE OF JAMES. 



15 



at all on ceremonial ordinances or Hebrew rites. 
Hence the date probably precedes A. D. 51. Some- 
where between A. D. 45-51 it probably lies: — (Mayor, 
Huther, Neander, Plumtre, Purves). 

The epistle of James is very likely the oldest docu- 
ment in the New Testament canon. It is noteworthy 
that within sixteen years of our Lord's resurrection 
the Gospel had penetrated the widely scattered people 
of Israel. James himself told Paul that there were 
"many thousands" who believed, and he spoke only 
of Jerusalem. How many more there must have been 
within the Roman Empire we may readily infer. The 
Lord's brother had good reason to address his letter 
to the twelve tribes of the Dispersion. 

Another thing worthy of note is, that James does 
not controvert Paul's doctrine as to justification by 
faith apart from works. The controversy between 
Paul and the Judaizers is of later date than this 
epistle. Both Romans and Galatians were written 
some years after James. Hence the one did not write 
against the other, nor is there antagonism in their 
views of truth, as later on in this study we shall see. 

The language of the epistle is strong and beautiful. 
It abounds in vivid imagery, in short, sententious ut- 
terances. With a single stroke of his pen James com- 
mends a duty, scourges a fault, denounces wrong, ex- 
alts virtue, and crowns patience and faith with tran- 
scendant glory. James differs widely from Paul both 
in style and thought. The imagery of Paul is drawn 
almost exclusively from the employments of men, as, 
e. g. s military life, agriculture, architecture, and the 



lb 



EPISTLE OF JAMES. 



contests of the stadium and of the gymnasium, while 
the metaphors of James are taken almost entirely from 
the phenomena of nature. There are more images of 
this sort in this short epistle than in all the writings 
of Paul put together. Note how graphic these are: 
the waves of the sea driven by the wind and tossed; 
the stately ship and the fierce winds ; the flower of the 
grass ; the sun risen with a burning heat ; the bit and 
bridle of the horse ; the small fire and the raging con- 
flagration; beasts, birds, serpents; the fig, olive, vine; 
the salt and fresh water; the early and latter rain, the 
vanishing vapor, rust, and moth-eaten garments. Paul 
was a keen observer of the habits and ways of men: 
James was an eager student of nature, and saw in its 
varied phenomena a picture of humanity. Both spoke 
by the Spirit of God, but their inspiration did not 
annul the characteristic features of their minds. 

Analysis. 

I. Contentment with our lot, chap. i. 

1. Greeting, i: I. 

2. Victory over temptation, i: 2-8. 

3. The lowly and the lofty, i: 9-1 1. 

4. Sin's genesis and issue — God's gift, i: 12-18. 

5. Receiving the word, i: 19-21. 

6. Hearers and doers of the word, i: 22-2J. 

II. Instructions and admonitions, ii-iv: 12. 

1. As to respect of persons, ii: 1-13. 

2. As to a barren orthodoxy, ii: 14-26. 

3. As to the control of the tongue, iii: 1-12. 

4. As to jealousy and faction, iii: 13-18. 

5. As to priie, greed and censoriousness, iv: 1-12, 



EPISTLE OF JAMES. 



17 



III. Denunciations, chaps, iv: 13-v: 6. 

1. Against overweaning confidence, iv: 13-17. 

2. Against rich and oppressive sinners, v: 1-6. 

IV. Concluding exhortations, chap, v: 7-20. 

1. Patience, v: 7-11. 

2. Rash assertions, v: 12. 

3. Health and sickness, v: 13-20. 

This analysis serves to show how practical and even 
personal the epistle is. It is ethical, not doctrinal. Yet 
doctrine, even the profoundest, underlies the personal 
appeals and the stern denunciations. It deals with 
actual conditions. It pours light into the professions 
and the practices of Christian Jews, and Gentiles as 
well. Living in the center of Judaism James saw the 
vices to which his countrymen were addicted, and he 
saw likewise that his flock was infected by the same 
hurtful evils, and so he must rescue them. Accord- 
ingly, he lifts up his voice, like one of Israel's 
prophets, to exhort, to rebuke, and to warn. He some- 
times speaks with indignation, sometimes with sorrow, 
almost with tears, always with the deepest earnestness. 
He pours out what is uppermost in his thoughts and 
closest to his heart without waiting to connect his mat- 
ter or to throw bridges across from one subject to 
another. 

Beneath the abrupt style and sententious form of the 
epistle there is a paramount aim, a single purpose. 
James' design is to vindicate the genuineness of the 
Christian faith and life. He seeks to make Christians 
sincere and true. He protests against the semblance 

2 



EPISTLE OF JAMES. 



of religion, against the profession of godliness with- 
out its possession. What he insists on is reality. He 
has no patience with a mere show of piety, with a form 
of godliness. He has a horror of cant. He heartily 
repudiates what is not real and vital. This, it is con- 
ceived, is the essence of James' teaching. He ex- 
presses it thus: "If any man thinketh himself to be 
religious, while he bridleth not his tongue but de- 
ceiveth his heart, this man's religion is vain" (i: 26). 
The key of the epistle is found in this sentence : "But 
be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiv- 
ing your own selves" (i: 22). "What doth it profit if 
a man say he hath faith, and hath not works? Can 
that faith save him ?" All this talk about faith — what 
is it worth ? Words, words — nay, let us have realities. 

With this clue in our hands let us study some of 
the prominent features of this Scripture. 

I. Temptations and their uses, i : 2-4, 12-16. "Count 
it all joy, my brethren, when ye fall into manifold 
temptations." What singular advice this is! Most 
people count trials a calamity; they are commonly 
dreaded, and always to be shunned. James thought 
otherwise. He looked on them as a means of Chris- 
tian culture, as a positive blessing; and hence they 
should be welcomed with joy. Of course, suffering 
in itself brings no joy, but the reverse. It is of what 
the trials may through grace work out for the be- 
liever that they are to be counted a joy when they 
come. "Knowing this that the trying of your faith 
worketh patience." A metal is tested in order to 
know its worth. But the trial of a dead thing is only 



EPISTLE OF JAMES. 



19 



a test, whereas the trial of faith is the test of a living- 
principle, and it issues in spiritual strength and 
energy. James calls it "patience," i. e., endurance or 
steadfastness, the development of genuine character. 
So Paul also conceives of it (Rom. v: 3-5), a passage 
we may venture to paraphrase thus: We rejoice in 
our tribulations, because tribulation works out patient 
endurance, and patient endurance becomes a cause and 
works out an approved experience, and this next be- 
comes a cause and works out hope, a hope that cannot 
shame nor disappoint us, for it is the fruit of grace 
and of the Spirit's action. The aim of Christian dis- 
cipline is perfection, "that ye may be perfect and en- 
tire, in nothing lacking." Faith is the supreme condi- 
tion of spiritual life and growth, and faith grows by 
use, by exercise, hence it is tried, put often to the test 
that it may become strong and vigorous. It is only 
thus it becomes fruitful. Because of what tempta- 
tions mean and what they do and why they are sent 
the intelligent Christian ought to regard their approach 
with joy (cf. 1 Peter iv: 12, 13). It is a singular 
school we are sent to, and they are strange lessons 
which we are sometimes made to learn. But it is the 
best of all schools and the most profitable of all lessons. 
Jacob in his anguish said, "All these things are against 
me" (Gen. xlii: 36), but he was totally mistaken. 
What seemed to him to be unmixed evil turned out to 
be altogether good (cf. Rom. viii: 28; Heb. xii: 5-12). 
But often our distrust of God and our unworthy sus- 
picions of Him rob His dealings with us of much of 
their value. Pain, loss, suffering, are not joyous 



20 



EPISTLE OF JAMES. 



things, but grievous, "nevertheless afterwards they 
yield the peaceable fruits of righteousness unto them 
that are exercised thereby.' , How many men and 
women bless God for the loving but firm discipline of 
the old home! It then seemed hard to them, almost 
cruel, but it bore its precious fruit in the after-life. 
What they now are and all they are they owe in large 
measure to the faithful home training. It is not 
otherwise in God's household. A psalmist writes, 
"Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now have 
I kept thy word." And he gladly adds, "It is good for 
me that I have been afflicted" (Psalms cxix: 67, 71). 
Through eternity the saints will rejoice that God loved 
them too well to let them have their own way. He 
does not spare the rod, and His rod, like Aaron's, buds 
and blossoms. So James bids us count our divers 
temptations as "all joy," their multiplicity may be 
made to yield "every joy," every sort of glad ex- 
perience. 

"Sweet are the uses of adversity, 
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, 
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head." 

"Temptation" is used in two opposite senses in 
Scripture. In one it means trial, testing, as we have 
just seen. In the other it denotes enticement to sin, 
solicitation to evil. God never tempts in this sense. 
The basest slander uttered against Him is, to charge 
Him with being the author of the sin by which one is 
overcome. Yet men do this. They seek to exculpate 



EPISTLE OF JAMES. 



21 



themselves for their evil doing by laying the blame on 
circumstances, on temperament, on bad companions, 
on the devil, or on the Creator who, they allege, have 
made them with these fierce passions and desires. Not 
thus does a true child of God blaspheme the holy 
Lord. His language is that of the psalmist, "I ac- 
knowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever be- 
fore me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and 
done this evil in thy sight" (Psalms li : 2-4). His 
confession is, "my sin," "mine iniquity," "my trans- 
gressions." The wrongdoing is one's own, all one's 
own. God tempts no man to evil ; "but each man is 
tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust, and 
enticed." It is a sign of grace, a token of reality, 
when one honestly confesses his sin, repents of it, 
and comes to God with humble, trustful confidence. 
It is a mark of total depravity when one blasphemously 
charges God with his sin. 

II. Prayer for wisdom and guidance, i: 5-7; v: 
13-18. "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God 
that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; 
and it shall be given him." Wisdom is more than 
knowledge and is better. A man may have extensive 
and accurate knowledge, and at the same time be any- 
thing but wise. The wisdom so often and so highly 
commended in the Bible is a spiritual perception, a 
right understanding of what is right and best, and 
the application of it to the life. Its beginning is the 
fear of the Lord, and its possession brings content- 
ment and happiness. For wisdom discerns the will 
of God concerning us, perceives His aim, acquiesces 



22 



EPISTLE OF JAMES. 



in His dealings, and draws thence comfort and 
strength. Wisdom is the best knowledge used for the 
highest ends. It comes from God, and is to be had 
for the asking. When serious troubles arise, when 
exigencies and perplexities beset us, when we know 
not what to do or how to behave, when no way of 
escape appears, God is more than equal to the emer- 
gency, and may have a hundred ways to lead us out 
into liberty and to set our feet in a large place. We 
have only to ask ; He gives "liberally," absolutely, dis- 
interestedly. Selfishness gives, but grudges, rebukes; 
He gives with perfect love, nor reproaches our ignor- 
ance nor mocks our fears. 

Prayer is not real unless it v is in faith. God honors 
trust in Himself, never doubt or unbelief. Therefore, 
"let him ask in faith nothing wavering." "Waver" is 
fine, for while it does not positively deny, it hesitates 
and trembles between belief and unbelief, as if it met 
the question, Will God keep His promise? — now with 
yes, and now with no. "Let not that man think that 
he shall receive anything from the Lord," for he is a 
"double-minded man, unstable in all his ways." 
"Double-minded" is most expressive, as if the man 
had two souls, one trusting the other doubting, one for, 
the other against, hence inconstant, unsettled like the 
surge of the sea. Stier well says, "A doubtful peti- 
tioner offers not to God a steady hand or heart so that 
God cannot deposit in it His gift." Twice only do the 
Gospels speak of Jesus marvelling; once at the faith 
of a Roman officer (Matt, viii : 10) ; and once at the 
unbelief of the people of Nazareth, "And he could do 



EPISTLE OF JAMES. 



23 



no mighty work" there, for unbelief ties up the hand 
of God while faith moves the hand that moves the 
worlds (Mark vi: 5, 6). 

True prayer is offered only by one who is at peace 
with God and a child in the heavenly household. 
James writes, "The supplication of a righteous man 
availeth much in' its working." The prayer of faith 
is always heard, so is that of the righteous man, for 
only the justified and saved man prays in absolute trust 
and confidence. 

It is the righteous man who is the genuine interces- 
sor; he can come with holy boldness to the throne of 
grace in behalf of others. So James directs that one 
sick call for the elders of the church who are to pray 
over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the 
Lord : "and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and 
the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed 
sins they shall be forgiven him" (v: 14, 15). On this 
passage mainly rests the "sacrament of extreme unc- 
tion" held and practiced by the Roman church. The 
contrast between what Jesus teaches and Rome prac- 
tices is as sharp as it can well be. In James it is the 
sick one who calls the elders ; in Rome it is others, the 
sick being supposed to be in extremis. Here it is the 
elders who are called, there it is the priest ; here united 
prayer is offered for recovery; there no prayer for 
healing is "said;" here the anointing is for healing; 
there for absolution ; here all is done for healing ; there 
for death. Extreme unction is only administered in 
cases where life is despaired of and death is believed 
to be certain. It is mildly hinted that the sickness may 



24 



EPISTLE OF JAMES. 



be the product of sins committed ; and the promise is 
that if so these shall be forgiven, and the prayer of 
faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him 
up to life and health again. A faithless man, a dou- 
ble-minded man, an unrighteous man, cannot offer 
true prayer. Prayer without faith is fruitless. James 
urges sincerity, honesty, genuineness on the part of 
Christians. He is intolerant of mere profession. 

III. Control of the Tongue, i: 26; iii: 1-10. James' 
indictment against the censorous, malignant, slander- 
ous and lying tongue is one of the most severe, yet the 
most just, to be found in the whole range of literature. 
Three very pointed illustrations are introduced to set 
forth adequately the fact of the smallness of the instru- 
ment and the greatness of its work. The tongue is com- 
pared to two familiar mechanical appliances, and then 
to one of the forces of nature, in all three very simple 
and insignificant means produce mighty results. 

(1). The bit and bridle of the horse, iii: 3. "Be- 
hold, we put bits in the horses' mouths, that they may 
obey us." The horse is a powerful animal, useful 
when domesticated, dangerous and useless when wild, 
but he must be controlled in any case if he is to serve 
man with his strength. And he is governed by the bit, 
the part he bites, and the thing which keeps him under 
command. How trivial the bit seems, yet how effec- 
tive! So is the human tongue, small in itself, but so 
powerful as to arouse the wildest passions, defile the 
noblest mind and pollute the purest heart; or, it can 
stimulate to high endeavor, instil the loftiest aspira- 
tions, and fill the soul with the most steadfast courage 



EPISTLE OF JAMES. 



25 



and patience. Curbed, its worth is beyond compare; 
unfettered, it is one of the deadliest enemies of God 
and man. 

(2) . The ship's rudder (iii: 4): "Behold also the 
ships, which though they are so great and are driven 
of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very 
small helm whithersoever the governor listeth." The 
merchantmen of Paul's time were large vessels, as 
those described in the Acts clearly indicate (chaps, 
xxvii, xxviii) ; but in our day naval architecture builds 
on a colossal scale. Yet both ancient and modern ships 
are controlled by a little tongue, or rudder, at the 
stern. The mammoth ships of the present are 
guided by a small steering apparatus, but it is power- 
ful enough to counteract the "fierce winds" and the 
heaviest seas. "So the tongue is a little member, and 
boasteth great things." "Death and life are in its 
power" (Prov. xviii : 21). Speech is like a rudder; 
it can guide into right ways, escape dangers, battle 
successfully with storms, and conduct into restful 
harbors. But it can also wreck and shatter lives, and 
drown in bottomless floods. 

(3) . The little fire (iii: 5) : "Behold, how great a 
matter a little fire kindleth !" "Behold, how much 
wood is kindled by how small a fire!" — R. V.). The 
power of fire is terrific. A single spark may kindle a 
conflagration which will consume a whole city. The 
"Great Fire" of London in 1666 began in a little shop 
near London Bridge, and by it most of the city was 
laid in ashes. The fire which in 1871 burned over 
some 2,100 acres of Chicago, which in a few hours 



26 



EPISTLE OF JAMES. 



left 100,000 people homeless, and which destroyed 
some $200,000,000 of property, started in a cowshed 
by the overturning of a lamp. At first a child's foot 
might have extinguished the tiny spark, but "kindled," 
it became a raging sea of flame which no fire depart- 
ment could arrest. "And the tongue is a fire, a world 
of iniquity," which "defiles the whole body and sets on 
fire the wheel of nature, and is set on fire by hell." 
These are fearful emblems of the tongue's malignant 
and deadly work. But the figure is used sometimes to 
denote the energy of the Spirit of God, as when the 
tongues of fire rested on the heads of the disciples on 
the day of Pentecost. Those tongues of flame signified 
the power of speech, the irresistible words which the 
disciples should utter. And, indeed, their words were 
like glowing embers in their intense energy and force, 
as the record in Acts shows. James' use of the figure 
denotes the power of the tongue in evil. Speech is 
often diabolical; it scorches and consumes. The liar 
scatters firebrands, the slanderer kindles a raging con- 
flagration, the backbiter sets afire the "wheel of 
nature," the whole circle of his neighborhood. 

Furthermore, the unsanctified tongue is untamable 
(iii: 7, 8). Every form of animal life submits to hu- 
man authority, and every brute yields to man's patient 
training. Even the wildest and most ferocious of 
quadrupeds, as the elephant, the lion, the tiger; the 
most solitary of birds, as the eagle, the ostrich, the 
falcon; the most poisonous and implacable of reptiles, 
as the cobra, the viper, the crocodile, may be tamed, 
and many of these have been tamed. But man's 



EPISTLE OF JAMES. 



27 



tongue is as lawless, as unbridled now as in the days 
of Cain. Civilization refines and polishes the rough 
and savage forces, it subdues the brutal passions and 
curbs the wicked license of the tongue. So some ex- 
ultantly tell us. As a matter of fact civilization seems 
only to add to the cruelty of speech by supplying a 
vocabulary of cultured terms and phrases that are 
practically inexhaustible. Culture has not drawn a 
single fang of this wild beast ; it has not lessened by a 
single drop the poison-bag of this viper. 

Besides, James notes its glaring inconsistencies 
(Vers. 9-12). At one time the tongue worships God, 
at another curses men. Now it sings a glad song of 
praise, anon it blackens a noble character and blasts a 
good name. "My brethren, these things ought not so 
to be.' , They ought not, because contradictory and 
unnatural. The forces of nature never exhibit such 
flagrant inconsistencies. A spring never yields salt 
water and fresh; it obeys the law of its nature, so 
does a tree. So should the tongue; but alas, it does 
not. Every Christian needs to pray, "Deliver my 
soul, O Jehovah, from lying lips and a deceitful 
tongue" (Psalm cxx: 2). 

IV. Denunciation of a barren orthodoxy (ii: 14-26). 
At first sight there appears to be real antagonism be- 
tween the teaching of Paul and of James on the im- 
portant subject of faith and works. Is there no dis- 
crepancy between these two men of God as to the doc- 
trine of justification? Apparently there is. Paul 
writes (Rom. iii : 28), "Therefore we conclude that a 
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law." 



28 



EPISTLE OF JAMES. 



James writes (ii: 24, 26), "Ye see how that by works 
a man is justified, and not by faith only;" "faith with- 
out works is dead." Paul teaches (Rom. iv) that 
Abraham was justified by faith; James, by works (ii: 
21). But after all the antagonism disappears when 
we come to understand the aim and the design of each 
inspired writer. Paul treats exclusively of the ground 
of our justification, and he affirms that works form no 
part of it, that legal righteousness is absolutely and 
forever excluded as the ground and cause of our rec- 
onciliation and acceptance with God. James deals 
with the evidence of the reality and energy of our 
faith. Paul protests against human merit as being 
part of our justification before God. James protests 
against a barren orthodoxy which says, but never does; 
which pretends to be true and loyal, but which 
haughtily refuses to feed the hungry and clothe the 
naked ; which recites weekly or daily even a perfectly 
sound creed, but which does not work itself out in 
devotion of life and whole-hearted service. Paul 
speaks of the cause, James of the effect of that cause. 
Paul's theme is the tree, James' its fruit. Suppose I 
say, using another's illustration, a tree cannot be 
1 struck by lightning without thunder, I state a fact 
familar to all; there can be no destructive lightning 
unaccompanied by thunder. But I further say, the 
tree was struck by lightning without thunder, which is 
also true, for it is the electric bolt that strikes, not the 
report that accompanies it. So Paul says, "Faith justi- 
fies without works, i. e., faith alone justifies us, not 
works." James says, "But not a faith which is with- 



EPISTLE OF JAMES. 



29 



out works." Put it in a single sentence, thus: Faith 
alone justifies, but not the faith which is alone. 
Lightning alone strikes, but not the lightning which is 
alone, without thunder, for that is summer lightning 
and harmless. James teaches with equal truth as does 
Paul, that the faith which makes loud profession but 
which never manifests its energy and life in the activi- 
ties of good works is dead, being alone, and it is 
worthless. 



FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 



Simon Peter was a native of Galilee and by occu- 
pation a fisherman. He was brought to the Saviour 
early in His ministry by his brother Andrew (John i: 
40, 41). Andrew and his friend John heard the Bap- 
tist bear his very remarkable witness to Jesus as he 
saw Him approaching, "Behold, the Lamb of God, 
that taketh away the sin of the world" (John i: 29, 
36). Their confidence in their teacher led the two 
young men to follow Jesus to whom the double testi- 
mony was borne, and at His invitation they spent the 
day with Him. Andrew was won by the interview, 
and he speedily acquainted his brother Simon with the 
great discovery, "We have found the Messiah (which 
is, being interpreted, Christ), He brought him unto 
Jesus." Apparently this incident did not issue in a 
definite call to become a disciple. At a somewhat later 
period Peter received the call which made him a dis- 
ciple and which predicted his future ministry for 
Christ, "a fisher of men" (Matt, iv: 18-20; Mark i: 
16-18; Luke v: 10, 11). His call to become an apostle 
is recorded in Matt, x: 1-4; Mark iii: 13-16). 

Peter occupies a distinguished place among the 
Lord's disciples. In the four lists of the Apostles re- 
corded in the New Testament his name stands first 
(Matt, x: 2-4; Mark iii: 16-19; Luke vi : 14-16; Acts 
i: 13). Matthew opens his list with the significant 

30 



FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 



words, "Now the names of the twelve apostles are 
these: The first Simon, who is called Peter/* It is 
difficult to determine whether "first" denotes his call 
or his rank, or whether both ideas may be embraced 
in it. The fact, however, that his name heads all the 
lists invests his position with some distinction, if not 
priority. His position, however, was not so much 
the result of his appointment by the Saviour as it was 
that of his personal qualities, his intellectual gifts and 
endowments. His natural talents were of a high 
order, and these quickened by the Spirit fitted him to 
be a leader among men. John had gifts superior even 
to those of Peter, and they were more rare. But John 
was not a leader like Peter. Paul in many of his great 
qualities and talents surpassed both Peter and John. 
No doubt others of the apostolic band had elements of 
distinction peculiarly their own. But Peter held a 
place not shared by others. He, James, and John be- 
longed to the inner circle of the apostleship. The 
three were present at the raising of Jairus' daughter, 
at the magnificent scene of the Transfiguration, and at 
Gethsemane during the awful Agony. 

He was a leader in a sense more distinct and promi- 
nent than the others. He is the chief figure in the 
first twelve chapters of the Acts of the Apostles. It 
is Peter that proposes a successor to the fallen Judas, 
he that preaches the first Christian sermon on the day 
of Pentecost and has the indescribable joy of seeing 
three thousand turned to the Lord by that one dis- 
course ; he that opens the door to the Gentile world in 
the house of the Roman soldier, Cornelius, and that 



32 FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 



again has the exquisite delight of witnessing scenes 
that closely approach those of Pentecost at Jerusalem. 
Indeed, the supernatural gift of the Spirit to Cor- 
nelius and his friends was a second Pentecost. It was 
given him to pronounce sentence on the guilty pair, 
Ananias and Sapphira, and to rebuke in the power of 
the Spirit of God the profane and wicked Simon the 
sorcerer. In these and the like instances Peter ex- 
erted the authority given him by Christ Himself, viz. : 
to bind and to loose (Matt, xvi: 19) — an authority be- 
stowed by the Head of the new Organization, the 
Church, upon all the disciples (John xx: 22, 23). 

It was to him that Jesus said, "Thou art Peter and 
on this rock I will build my church" (Matt, xvi: 18). 
This great promise was made Peter in consequence of 
his memorable confession, "Thou art the Christ, the 
Son of the living God." It was the Father who had 
revealed this mighty truth to him, as the Lord Jesus 
assures him. He had not discovered it for himself, 
he never could have done so, nor had it been disclosed 
to him by any creature whatever. The knowledge of 
the Person of Jesus Christ was a matter of revelation, 
not of sense perception in any way. "Flesh and 
blood" did not reveal it to hiin, nor could. God alone 
could. In consequence of this deep insight into Jesus' 
true character, because of the divine revelation made 
him, and because of his noble confession, Jesus pro- 
nounced him blessed and gave him officially the new 
name which He had said should be his (John i: 42), 
viz.: Peter, the rock-man, the firm witness of the 
Christ, the Son of the living God. It is common for 



FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 



33 



the Lord to change the name of favored servants 
when some supreme crisis comes upon them, as Saul 
receives the name of Paul when in Cyprus he showed 
power such as he had never before displayed (Acts 
xiii: 8-12) ; Abram becomes Abraham when the Cove- 
nant of God is made with him (Gen. xvii : 5); and 
Jacob becomes Israel, the Prince with God, when the 
angel wrestled with him (Gen. xxxii: 27, 28). The 
words, "Thou art Peter, and on this rock I will build 
my church," most certainly do not mean that by them 
Peter was made the foundation of the Christian 
Church, for Christ alone is the foundation, as Peter 
himself affirms (1 Peter ii: 3-8). The apostle here 
declares that Christ is the "living Stone," that He is 
the "chief corner-stone, elect, precious," that believers 
are built up "a spiritual house," resting as they do on 
Him who is the Corner-stone. Peter himself is a 
stone in this heavenly structure, and he is nothing 
more. Paul likewise asserts that Christ alone is the 
foundation of the whole Christian building (1 Cor. 
iii: 11), "For other foundation can no man lay than 
that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." Also in 
Eph. ii : 20-22 he teaches in exact accord with Peter 
that Christ is the chief corner-stone, that upon Him 
are built, first, the apostles and prophets, who are a 
foundation as resting on Him, and then all the saincs 
rise into a holy temple upon the same foundation and 
corner-stone. Far less do these words denote that 
thereby Peter was constituted the head of the Chris- 
tian Body, that universal supremacy was conferred 
upon him, and that he transmitted this stupendous 
3 



FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 



authority to his successors in office, the Bishops of the 
Roman See. That great colossal structure known as 
the Roman Hierarchy, with the infallible Pontiff at 
its head, rests, not on the Apostle Simon Peter, but 
mainly on the forged documents of the Isidorian 
Decretals,* and the Donation of Constantine. 

In spite of his many noble qualities and traits, and 
notwithstanding the precious gifts bestowed upon him, 
Peter nevertheless was too feeble and fallible a man 
ever to become the rock on which Christ's Church 
should rest. He was too readily defeated by tempta- 
tion, too easily swayed by prejudice, too often con- 
quered by fear, to be such a Rock. A few hours after 
Jesus said, "Thou art Peter, and on this rock I will 
build my church/' the awful words of rebuke fell on 
his startled ears, "Get thee behind me, Satan ; thou art 
an offence unto me; for thou mindest not the things 
that be of God, but those that be of men" (Matt, xvi: 
22, 23). The opening words of this reprimand are 
the same Christ used to repel the adversary in the 
Temptation (Matt, iv: 10). "Offence" is really a 
stumbling-block over which Satan by poor Peter was 
seeking to cast down the Son of God ! How quickly 
and how unwittingly the Rock-man becomes a devil! 
Honored servant of Christ as he was, he was too weak 

* " Upon these spurious decretals was built the great fabric 
of papal supremacy over the different national Churches : a 
fabric which has stood after its foundation had crumbled be- 
neath it; for no one has pretended to deny, for the last two 
centuries, that the imposture is too palpable for any but the 
most ignorant ages to credit." Hallam's Middle Ages, p. 274. 



FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 



35 



a man to be the foundation upon which a soul might 
rest ; he was too often at fault to be even the best pat- 
tern for any devout and earnest believer. One alone 
there is who is worthy of supreme confidence and imi- 
tation, Christ, who never was at fault, never made a 
mistake, who was absolutely without sin. He is our 
Example. 

But let us turn to Peter's Epistles. Two are 
ascribed to him. Of the first the genuineness is with- 
out suspicion. The second has been in doubt for cen- 
turies. While the historical attestation of its integ- 
rity is less and weaker than that of any other book of 
the New Testament, yet it is retained in the canon, 
and is held to be Scripture by multitudes of Christians. 
But of its trustworthiness more will be said later on in 
this Study. 

Peter addresses the elect sojourners of the Disper- 
sion, i. e., believing Jews who were scattered through 
various provinces of Asia Minor. These Christian 
Hebrews are mainly in the mind of the apostle as he 
writes, but not exclusively so, for he writes to Gentile 
believers as well, as i : 14 ; ii : 10 ; iv : 3, 4 clearly indi- 
cates. The Asiatic Provinces Peter mentions appear 
to have contained multitudes of Jews. Representatives 
from three of them were present at Pentecost when 
Peter preached the first Christian sermon. The three 
Provinces are Pontus, Cappadocia and Asia (Acts ii: 
9; 1 Peter i: 1). Some, perhaps most of those, who 
came to Jerusalem on that memorable occasion from 
Asia Minor received the Gospel and returned home to 
spread the good news among their co-religionists. It 



36 FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 



is these "elect sojourners of the Dispersion" he ad- 
dresses, for Peter adhered rather strictly to the Jewish 
side of his apostolic mission, though he does not shut 
out the Gentiles from his instructions and his encour- 
agements. 

The First Epistle is dated from Babylon (v: 13). 
What place is meant ? Two bearing the name existed 
in the apostolic age. There was a Babylon in Egypt 
where a military fortress was found, and where a 
small population was gathered. The persistent tradi- 
tion of the Coptic Church dating from remote antiquity 
alleges that it was from this Babylon Peter wrote the 
epistle. The tradition further asserts that he with 
Mark labored in Egypt, that after Peter's death Mark 
continued the Christian testimony and founded the 
church of Alexandria. Few besides the Copts of 
Egypt entertain this view. 

The other Babylon is the ancient capital of Chaldea 
on the Euphrates. Jews in large numbers lived in 
Babylon, and there is good reason to believe that the 
Hebrew colony there was not destitute of influence 
and importance. As the Apostle of the Circumcision 
it is very probable Peter would visit such a center as 
Babylon appears to have been in the apostolic age. 
The words, "She that is in Babylon, elect together 
with you," may point to a Christian woman and not 
to a church (see Amer. Rev.), as what follows seems 
to intimate — "and so doth Marcus my son." Both ex- 
pressions denote an individual, the first probably 
Peter's wife who accompanied her husband on his 
missionery tours (cf. 1 Cor. ix: 5). The second was 



FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 



37 



John Mark, son of Mary (Acts xii: 12). The order 
in which Peter mentions the Asiatic Provinces (i: 1) 
favors the view that the Babylon of Chaldea is meant. 
He begins with the eastern part of Asia Minor, with 
Pontus, and then passes westward and southward to 
Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, then northward and west- 
ward to Bithynia. It is exactly the order one would 
mention if placed at Babylon on the Euphrates, and 
certainly not if he were stationed in the extreme west, 
say at Rome, or in the extreme south, as Egypt. The 
weight of evidence appears to incline to the Chaldean 
Babylon, though ancient tradition as to Peter's being 
there is silent. 

From an early period a mystic interpretation was 
given the term — Babylon is Rome. Almost all of the 
Roman Catholic writers so understand it, and some 
Protestant interpreters as well. But this apocalyptic 
disguise accords badly, indeed most discordantly, with 
the plain matter of fact writing which the epistle dis- 
plays. Such a symbolic meaning of the name is per- 
fectly consistent with the book of Revelation; we 
expect such veiled, enigmatic use of terms in that book. 
It is altogether foreign to Peter. The wish to find 
biblical support for the tradition of Peter's sojourn in 
Rome may have led to this interpretation ; it is the 
only apparent proof from Scripture that can be ad- 
duced; but it has no weight with those who are not 
ruled by uncertain tradition. 

Peter's Epistles bear resemblance to other New 
Testament writings, particularly to those of Paul, of 
James, and to the words of our Lord in the Gospels, 



38 



FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 



But Peter was no copiest. He possessed much inde- 
pendence of thought and originality. His fervid spirit 
and vigorous thinking impress themselves deeply on 
his letters. And yet he has characteristics that are 
worthy of patient and earnest study. Let us point out 
some of these. 

I. A notable feature is the wonderful adaptation to 
various classes, and to the manifold experiences of 
life. President Henry G. Weston in a special study 
of John xxi suggestively notes the connection between 
the Saviour's threefold charge to Peter (John xxi: 
15-17) and Peter's epistles. The charge is thus rep- 
resented in the Revision : "Feed my lambs ; Tend my 
sheep; Feed my sheep." Two classes are here indi- 
cated, babes and the mature. And the two epistles 
certify how faithfully the apostle obeyed the charge. 
With loving and tender hand this under-shepherd 
feeds the lambs, tends the whole flock, feeds the 
strong, guards from danger, warns against foes, leads 
into green pastures and beside still waters. Flow 
mightily he ministers to those who suffer! He re- 
minds them of the glorious inheritance they are to 
possess (i: 3-9). He bids them remember the un- 
complaining Christ when He was unjustly afflicted by 
cruel men (ii: 20-25). He tells them of the noble 
vindication they shall have when the Lord shall take 
up their cause at His own judgment-seat (iv: 12-18). 
Much of the First Epistle is designed to comfort the 
suffering saints, to stimulate them to steadfastness, to 
encourage them amid their fierce trials, and to assure 
them of the glorious future that awaited them. 



FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 



"Honor all men." "Love the brotherhood." "Fear 
God." "Honor the king." And this was written when 
persecution was raging, when that human monster, the 
world's colossal criminal, Caesar Nero, was on the im- 
perial throne, and when Christians were regarded as 
the foes of humanity. The spirit of the world in the 
like cases says, Resist, arm for defence and fight for 
your rights and your lives. The Spirit of Christ says, 
Arm for martyrdom (iv: i). "If ye suffer for right- 
eousness' sake, happy are ye" (iii: 14). Keep before 
you the Master's example, "who, when he was reviled, 
reviled not again ; when he suffered he threatened not ; 
but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously" 
(ii: 23). The apostle calls this matchless behavior of 
the Lord Jesus under unjust treatment a copy we are 
to imitate. His walk and His ways we are to tran- 
scribe into our own lives. "He wrote us a pure and 
perfect copy of obedience, in clear and great letters, in 
His own blood. He that aims high shoots the higher 
for it, though he shoot not so high as he aims" 
(Leighton). 

Such is the main teaching of the first epistle. That 
of the second relates to the perils of false doctrine, 
false brethren, unscrupulous corruptors of the church 
and of the Gospel, and deniers of fundamental and 
vital truth. What must Christians do in the presence 
of these formidable adversaries? How shall they 
keep themselves in the love and the holiness of God? 
From the world they are patiently to suffer. But 
from these more dangerous enemies how are they to 
guard themselves? Second Peter answers these and 



40 FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 



the like solemn queries. And thus Peter obeys the 
Lord's injunctions to "feed my lambs; tend my sheep; 
feed my sheep." 

2. Hope. This is the epistle of Hope. How much 
it makes of this prime grace! Peter seems never to 
grow weary of defining hope, describing it, and in 
turning it from side to side to exhibit its manifoldness, 
its radiant beauty in every circumstance and condition 
of life. He calls it a "living hope" (i: 3). It is living 
because to hope is one of the supreme functions of the 
new nature; the believer is begotten "unto a living 
hope." No sooner do we receive the Spirit of adop- 
tion and cry, Abba, Father, than is hope born, and 
fills our whole horizon with its radiant splendors. It 
is a hope that will never put to shame, for it rests on 
the mighty fact and pledge of Christ's resurrection. 

It is a hope that perfectly awaits the grace to be re- 
vealed at the advent of our Lord, a hope that will 
find its full fruition then and not till then (i: 13). It 
is a hope that is set on God, is in Him, therefore it is 
sure, imperishable (i: 21). Moreover, it is one that 
can give a reason for itself, that can assert itself and 
defend itself victoriously against all gainsayers, be- 
cause it is living, confident, imperishable, for it is set 
on God (iii: 15). So, a Christian is one who can sing 
with the psalmist, "Why art thou cast down, O my 
soul? Why art thou disquieted within me? Hope in 
God, for I shall yet praise him who is the help of my 
countenance and my God" (Psalms xiii: 11). 

With sickly, dying hope and with dead hopes we 
are quite familiar. The best device a nobleman could 



FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 



41 



inscribe on his escutcheon was dum spiro spero (while 
I live I hope). Beyond that it seems he could not 
venture to go. "It is a fearful thing when a man and 
all his hopes die together" (Leighton). But a Chris- 
tian can write joyfully and confidently, dum expiro 
spero (while I am dying I hope), for his hope is liv- 
ing, has life in itself, and fills and thrills the future 
with living reality. This is the hope Peter celebrates, 
this he urges on his readers, this he prizes above all 
else in the world. 

3. A third characteristic of the epistle is this: 
Peter's conception of the Christian brotherhood, the 
Church of God. It is a very exalted one. He sets 
the new Israel in the loftiest place, he describes it in 
terms that were applied to the old Israel, but terms 
which with the Apostle mean more and include more 
than ancient Israel realized. It must not be forgotten 
that this conception is by one who was a strict Jew, 
who, after his call to discipleship and apostleship, still 
ministered to the circumcision (Gal. ii: 7, 8), and who 
held somewhat strictly to the laws and customs of 
Moses to the close of his life. All the more striking 
and significant on this account his remarkable testi- 
mony is : — ii : 9, 10, "But ye are an elect race, a royal 
priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own 
possession, that ye may show forth the excellencies of 
him who called you out of darkness into his marvel- 
lous light: who in time past were no people but now 
are the people of God : who had not obtained mercy, 
but now have obtained mercy." This is his wondrous 
description of God's new Israel. What a cluster of 



FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 



illustrious titles are here! A distinguished man, a 
general, or a nobleman, a statesman or an admiral, will 
sometimes have his breast covered with glittering dec- 
orations, which mark his rank, his service and his 
achievements. But such distinctions sink into insig- 
nificance alongside of this dazzling cluster. Each one 
of them belonged to ancient Israel, but they were lost 
through disobedience and forfeited by unfaithfulness 
and sin. They pertain now to the spiritual, the new 
Israel who are kept in God's power unto salvation. 
This is the heavenly nobility, the royal family, deco- 
rated with badges brighter than ever glittered on the 
breast of king or emperor ! 

4. A fourth characteristic is this : the epistle does 
not observe a close logical sequence in its structure, 
as those of Paul so prominently display. There is 
truth in Al ford's statement, though perhaps he pushes 
it too far : "The link between one idea and another 
is found, not in any progress of unfolding thought or 
argument, but in the last word of the foregoing sen- 
tence which is taken up and followed out in the new 
one." (See i: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, etc.) This peculiarity, 
however, does not interfere with the unity of the 
epistle, it rather adds to it, and it gives it a vividness 
and fulness of exposition which it otherwise would not 
possess. All the chief doctrines of Christianity are 
found in it. The vicarious suffering and death of the 
Lord Jesus Christ (ii: 24); the new birth (i: 23); 
redemption by the blood of Christ (i: 18, 19) ; faith, 
hope, patient endurance under suffering and holiness 
of life are all taught and enforced with great earnest- 



FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 



43 



ness and force by the apostle. It is noteworthy that 
amid the trials coming on Christians at the time the 
main ground of encouragement and exhortation is 
the speedy coming of the Lord and the blessedness and 
glory they shall then uninterruptedly enjoy. But this 
is characteristic of the Bible. The Spirit uniformly 
keeps before the minds of the suffering saints in every 
book of Scripture the Blessed Hope of the Lord's re- 
turn to the world and the glorious deliverance and ex- 
altation of all who wait for Him. This is made their 
comfort and their strength in the day of their trouble 
and distress. May it be personally and consciously 
ours. 

ANALYSIS. 
(General.) 

I. Christian Privilege, chaps, i-ii: 10. 

II. Christian Duties, chaps, ii: n-v. 

(Particular.) 

1. Salutation, i: i, 2. 

2. Blessedness of salvation, 1: 3-12. 

3. Exhortation, i: *3-i6. 

4. Redemption, i: 17-25. 

5. Exhortation, ii: 1-3. 

6. Calling and Standing of believers, ii: 4-10. 

7. Exhortation, ii: n-20. 

8. Christ's Example — character and work ii: 21-25. 

9. Various Exhortations, iii-v. 

a. Behavior toward one another, iii: 1-12. 

b. Fidelity under Trial, iii: 13-22. 

- c. Behavior under persecution, iv: 1-19. 

d. Duties of Elders, v. 1-4. 

e. Humility and Vigilance, v: 5-10. 

f. Conclusion, v: 11-14. 



FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 



The epistle is rich in the glorious doctrines that it 
unfolds, and powerful in its appeals to Christians. 
The inspired writer knows what these suffering saints 
need and all they need, and he speaks to their very 
heart. He views them as pilgrims and strangers 
walking across the earth toward their true home, their 
heavenly country. He urges them to do no harm to 
any, to do what good they can to all, to bear patiently 
the cruel wrongs they unjustly suffer, to copy their 
Lord who "did no sin, neither was guile found in his 
mouth," to remember the noble name they bear, and 
the glory of the heritage which soon shall be theirs. 

Some prominent things in First Peter may engage 
our attention briefly. 

I. The Christian's glorious inheritance (i: 3-5). 
In this majestic sentence two things are made pre- 
eminent; first, the nature of the inheritance; second, 
the certainty of its attainment. The inheritance is de- 
scribed by four significant epithets (ver. 4). It is de- 
clared to be "incorruptible." This word points to its 
substance. It is imperishable. In it there is no ele- 
ment of decay. It holds in its heart no germ of death. 
Like its great Author, the living God, it is unchange- 
able and eternal in its being. Of no heritage of earth 
can this magnificent term "incorruptible" be used. 
Imperfection and corruption attach to all earthly pos- 
sessions. Sooner or later they pass from their owners 
or the owners pass from them. But this is subject to 
no loss nor change nor surprise. In every way it is 
inviolable. Violence is not heard in that land, wasting 
nor destruction in her borders (Isa. lx: 18). 



FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 



45 



The inheritance is described as "undefiled." It is 
not stained by sin nor defiled by any crime, either in 
its acquisition or its possession. Human heritages are 
all marred by human wrongs. There is hardly an 
acre of soil on earth that is not polluted by iniquity; 
there is not an estate the world over that is not stained 
by fraud or violence. The very coin that passes from 
hand to hand is in most cases soiled by guilt. But this 
of Peter is free from every taint of evil. Into the 
heavenly inheritance shall in no wise enter whatsoever 
worketh abomination or maketh a lie (Rev. xxi: 27). 

It is one that "fadeth not away." That is, is un- 
withering. Ages on ages do not impair its beauty nor 
dim its lustre. Its bloom will remain fresh, its fra- 
grance unimpaired, forever. The bliss of the saved 
will never diminish, the pleasures at God's right hand 
never cloy. After millions of years in heaven the 
saved will know no weariness nor satiety, for their 
inheritance is unfading and unfailing. Peter describes 
it also as a "crown of life that fadeth not away" 
(v: 4). "In thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy 
right hand there are pleasures forevermore" (Psalms 
xvi: 11). "So that our inheritance is glorious in these 
three respects: it is in substance, incorruptible: in 
purity, undefiled: in beauty, unfading" (Alford). 

"Reserved in heaven." This is the last and the 
crowning feature. The saints' inheritance is heavenly, 
and it is reserved in heaven. This marks its worth and 
excellence, and likewise its security. It is surpassingly 
rich and lovely because it is heavenly. Jesus Christ 
is the central object of it, and His riches are unsearch- 



4 6 



FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 



able; His glory infinite and eternal; His love all- 
sufficient and satisfying. The heritage is kept there- 
fore safe from all foes, from all changes, from all 
waste. It is free from all possibility of invasion from 
enemies and from decay in itself. 

What guarantees have believers that they shall come 
into the enjoyment of this great heritage? The best 
possible. Many an inheritance is jeopardized and lost 
to the heirs through defective title or dishonest guar- 
dians. We know that our inheritance is secure, for 
it is in the keeping of the faithful Creator. But we 
live in a world that is hostile to us and to our King; 
we carry within ourselves a traitor heart. What cer- 
tainty is there that we shall actually "possess our pos- 
sessions? (i.) God's power is our pledge in this be- 
half. We are kept by it. The term for kept is a mili- 
tary one, meaning guarded, protected as in a fortress 
or citidal. How secure must they be who have God's 
power for their guard ? We can triumphantly exclaim 
with the prophet, "We have a strong city; salvation 
will God appoint for walls and bulwarks" (Isa. xxvi: 
i). "The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the 
righteous runneth into it and is safe" (Prov. 
xviii: 10). The heritage is reserved in heaven for the 
saints : the sainted are guarded for it by the power of 
God. 

(2.) "Through faith." This is the second element 
in the security of the saints. It is God's power that 
preserves them unto salvation; it is their faith that 
lays hold on the power and makes it effective in them 
to the final accomplishment of His grace in their be- 



FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 



half. God's power is the efficient cause, faith the 
effective means. The two, power and faith, join hands 
for the believer's eternal safety. Let the force of the 
two prepositions in and through, in this place, be well 
marked : we are guarded in the power of God through 
faith. Faith brings us within the circle of the divine 
power, and the power keeps us within the circle of the 
saved. The efficient cause becomes inherent in the 
effective means. "For by grace have ye been saved 
through faith: and that not of yourselves, it is the 
gift of God" (Eph. ii: 8, R. V.). 

(3.) The Living Hope is still another pledge of our 
security. The order of the words as Peter wrote them 
is this — "Begotten us again unto a hope living through 
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." His 
resurrection is the very life of our hope. "If Christ 
be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your 
sins" (1 Cor. xv: 17). A darkness more terrible than 
that of the grave enshrouds eternity, if He is not 
risen. It is remarkable that hope, as a Christian grace 
and fruit of the Spirit, is not found in any of the four 
Gospels. It comes into prominence, it flowers out 
with magnificent exuberance, only after Christ's res- 
urrection. It then becomes a living and mighty force 
in the believer's spirit; it then serves to strengthen 
his faith, keep him firm and steady amid trouble and 
gloom, and to fill his present with light and joy, his 
future with indescribable glory. 

In this great passage we have four things: 

(1) God's mercy, the primary cause in our salvation; 

(2) Christ's death and resurrection, the procuring 



48 FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 



cause; (3) regeneration, the formal cause; (4) bliss, 
the final cause. 

II. The prophets and their study, i: 10, 11 : — "Con- 
cerning which salvation the prophets sought and 
searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that 
should come unto you: searching what time or what 
manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them 
did point unto, when it testified beforehand the suffer- 
ings of Christ, and the glories that should follow 
them" (R. V.). 

(1) The testimony of the prophets. With Peter 
and his fellow apostles their testimony is authoritative 
and final. In his sermon at Pentecost he confirmed 
his inspired teaching by an appeal to two of the 
prophets, Joel and David. On a subsequent occasion 
(Acts iii: 24) he cited Moses to ratify what he was 
saying, and added that "all the prophets from Samuel 
and those that followed after, as many as have spoken, 
have likewise foretold of these days." He was at no 
loss to discover the Messiah in the words of the 
prophets. He saw in them unmistakable predictions 
of His advent, His sufferings, and His glories. 

(2) The burden of the prophetic communications 
was salvation. The prophets spoke on many subjects; 
they had to exhort, rebuke, and entreat their wayward 
contemporaries ; to denounce sin, to announce judg- 
ment upon their own people Israel and upon the Gen- 
tile nations as well. But ever and anon their vision 
would be filled with the future and its blessedness, 
their voices would swell into rapture as they saw and 
foretold the great salvation to be brought to the world 



FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 



and the grace that would then so copiously go out to 
men; for Messiah was to suffer the just for the un- 
just that He might bring us to God, that in His suffer- 
ing, His triumph and His finished work, redemption 
full and free should be secured to all who trust in 
Him. In its most comprehensive sense salvation was 
the prophets' theme. 

(3) The prophets' messages were in reality the 
message of the Spirit of Christ. It was He who testi- 
fied beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the 
glories that should follow. The prophets always dis- 
claim any part in the origination of their messages. 
They affirm in the most positive and solemn manner 
that their predictions are not their own, but God's, 
that even their words have been given them. Hence 
they are called God's "spokesmen" and God's 
"mouth" (Exodus iv: 15, 16; vii: 1, 2). Peter him- 
self writes of the source and the authority of prophecy 
this majestic sentence: "For no prophecy ever came 
by the will of man: but men spake from God, being 
moved by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter i: 21). 

(4) The Prophets' Study. They "inquired and 
searched diligently." The terms are strong and em- 
phatic. They pored over the predictions which the 
Spirit had revealed through themselves; they scruti- 
nized these and bent their minds to the study of them 
with the most eager, prolonged and earnest purpose. 
Two points, it seems, engaged their attention more 
particularly, viz.: "What and what manner of time 
the Spirit of Christ which was in them did point to." 
The first "what" relates to the date when Messiah 

4 



FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 



would likely appear ; the second "what" to the events 
and circumstances which would attend His advent. 
It was a fruitful theme for investigation, one that not 
only enlisted the whole strength of their minds, but 
that engaged also the inquiry of nobler students, viz. : 
the angels, ver. 12 — "Which things angels desire to 
look into." 

It is obvious from this language that the prophets 
did not always understand their own communications ; 
they wrote down the messages they received from the 
Spirit, and afterwards they gave themselves to a dili- 
gent search into the contents of them. Daniel fur- 
nishes an example of such research. He studied deeply 
the prophecies of Jeremiah, and from them learned 
when the Babylonian exile should terminate (Dan. 
ix: 2). Accordingly, he gave himself to importunate 
prayer that Jehovah would forgive His people's trans- 
gressions and restore them to their land, even as He 
had promised. Moreover, it is quite clear from the 
words of Daniel that he did not uniformly understand 
the significance of the divine communications which he 
received, and that he sought earnestly to do so. In 
vii : 28, he says, "As for me, Daniel, my thoughts much 
troubled me, and my countenance was changed in me : 
but I kept the matter in my heart." "And I wondered 
at the vision, but none understood it" (viii: 27). He 
tells us that one heavenly messenger said to another, 
"Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision" 
(viii: 16). After some of the mighty visions he re- 
mained without strength for some time, he even 
fainted, and was "sick certain days" (viii: 27). Now, 



FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 



51 



no more cogent argument for the verbal inspiration of 
the prophetic Scriptures could possibly be adduced 
than this fact. For it is beyond question that if the 
prophets did not grasp the meaning of their own mes- 
sages, if after receiving them they searched them to 
know what they meant, then the words must have been 
given them, else they never could have accurately re- 
corded what they saw and heard. It is utter folly, in 
the presence of this telling fact, to talk of the 
"thoughts," or the "concepts," alone being given them, 
and then they clothed these in such language as they 
could command. If this was the method by which 
God spoke through the prophets (Heb. i: 1), then we 
can have no certainty that the communications are un- 
erringly true. Mistakes would inevitably occur in the 
recording of the messages. The prophets could no 
more have faithfully written the messages than could 
a child report a closely reasoned address by a compe- 
tent man on an abstruse subject, of which the child 
knew nothing. The very words were also given the 
prophets. Besides, here is evidence of both revela- 
tion and inspiration. God revealed to the prophets the 
things concerning Christ which still lay in the distant 
future; He inspired them to write the predictions ex- 
actly as they had been revealed. The unaided prophet 
could no more have foretold the future nor truthfully 
described things to come than he could create a world. 

III. Preaching to the spirits in prison. 

"For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the 
just for the unjust that he might bring us to God, be- 
ing put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the 



52 



FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 



Spirit : by which also he went and preached unto the 
spirits in prison; which sometime were disobedient, 
when once the long-suffering of God waited in the 
days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein 
few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water" 
(i Peter iii : 18-20). 

"Because Christ also suffered for sins once, the 
righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us 
to God ; being put to death in the flesh, but made alive 
in the spirit ; in which also he went and preached unto 
the spirits in prison, that aforetime were disobedient, 
when the longsuffering of God waited in the days of 
Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, 
that is, eight souls, were saved through water" 
(R. V.). 

Some passages of Scripture are, as is well known, 
obscure and difficult. A few baffle elucidation. Gal. 
iii: 20 is one such text: — "Now a mediator is not 
a mediator of one ; but God is one." Winer says there 
are 250 explanations of this verse ; Evans, between two 
and three hundred. The huge number serves to show 
how puzzling it is. "Baptism for the dead," 1 Cor. 
xv : 29 is another, and women to be veiled because of 
the angels (1 Cor. xi : 10) is a third. This of First 
Peter, as also the kindred text in iv : 6, belongs to this 
class. The interpretations and applications of it are 
multitudinous, perplexing and contradictory to the last 
degree. Some of these are ludicrous, and some are 
almost shocking in their temerity. Many interpreters, 
perhaps a majority of them, evangelical, sacramenta- 
rian and rationalistic, insist that our Lord in the in- 



FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 



53 



terval between His death and His resurrection in Flis 
human spirit actually visited the abode of imprisoned 
spirits in Hades and proclaimed to them in some 
fashion the Gospel of salvation. Some samples of 
this view are here appended. "If language has any 
meaning, this language means that Christ, when His 
spirit descended into the lower world, proclaimed the 
message of salvation to the once impenitent dead." 
"If the fate of those dead sinners was not irrevocably 
fixed by death, then it must be clear and obvious to 
the very meanest understanding that neither, of neces- 
sity, is ours" (Farrar). "The proof texts (i Peter 
iii: 18-21 ; iv: 6) admit of no other interpretation than 
that the historic Christ Himself, made alive after His 
death for a higher spiritual existence, proclaimed the 
Gospel to the unhappy contemporaries of Noah, who 
perished in the flood" (Van Osterzee). "In 1 Peter 
iii: 19 St. Peter teaches that God's way of salvation 
does not end with life" (Lange). "To all who are 
dead at the time of the last judgment, the Gospel has 
been preached, be it before or after their death" 
(Huther in Meyer). "We cannot see in the words 
anything but an attestation of the truth which the 
Church Catholic has received in the Apostles' Creed, 
that Christ died and was buried and descended into 
Hell" (Plumtre). "I understand these words to say 
that our Lord, in His disembodied state, did go to the 
place of detention of departed spirits, and did there 
announce His work of redemption, preach salvation, in 
fact, to the disembodied spirits of those who refused 
to obey the voice of God when the judgment of the 



FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 



flood was hanging over them" (Alford). There is no 
mistaking the view of the passage held by these dis- 
tinguished writers. The list of names on the same 
side might be greatly lengthened. But weighty as 
their authority is as interpreters of the word of God, 
we cannot accept the view. The objections to it are, 
we think, conclusive. 

This is one of the very few texts commonly cited in 
support of the statement in the so-called Apostles' 
Creed of "our Lord's descent into Hell." Gloag is 
authority for the remark that "this article was added 
to the creed at a late period, about the beginning of 
the fifth century," which seems to prove that such a 
belief was no part of the church's primitive confession, 
but a notion received long after the decline of evan- 
gelical truth had set in. On it likewise is made to rest 
the unscriptural doctrine of the deliverance of Old 
Testament believers from Hades and their translation 
to heavenly bliss by the Saviour's power. Upon it also 
is founded the theory of a "second probation," that is, 
that there will be the offer of salvation to the impeni- 
tent after their death and before or at the time of the 
Final Judgment. 

The aim of this study is to discover if possible the 
true meaning of this very obscure and difficult passage, 
and not to attempt an exhaustive examination of it. 
Two words seem to demand a brief definition. The 
term "preached" in connection with Christ and the 
Apostles denotes always the preaching of the gospel, 
the offer of salvation to those who are destitute of it. 
Rarely does it signify to publish or to proclaim, in 



FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 



the general and indefinite sense; only some five times 
is the word thus translated in the sixty times it occurs 
in the New Testament. Here it must certainly be un- 
derstood as meaning the preaching of the gospel, the 
offer of salvation to sinners. 

''Spirits" are beyond peradventure disembodied hu- 
man spirits ; they are not fallen angels nor demons, as 
some have strangely conjectured. 

Two grave questions at once confront him who 
seeks to understand Peter's language: i. Who are 
the spirits in prison? 2. When did Christ preach to 
them? But these questions are not here discussed 
separately, but together. In fact, they are so intimately 
connected that the treatment of the one involves also 
that of the other. The real inquiry may be thus ex- 
pressed: When and to whom did Christ preach? 
The answers to this inquiry by the commentators are 
various, conflicting, and in some cases unsatisfactory 
and misleading. The mere mention of some will suf- 
fice to secure their rejection. It has been conjectured 
that Christ's preaching was directed against the devil 
and his angels. The right understanding of the phrase 
"spirits in prison" rules out this conjecture. Or, it 
was a proclamation of judgment and condemnation to 
the lost in perdition, which seems to be forbidden by 
the true meaning of "preached," or, an offer of salva- 
tion to all the unholy dead, which is negatived by 
Peter's statement that these "spirits in prison" were 
men who in the days of Noah were disobedient. The 
Apostle expressly says the preaching was limited to 
the antediluvians. Or, it was a proclamation to those 



5 6 FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 



of Noah's time who repented after the rain 
began and the flood was set in, but too late for 
them to escape death. There is not the slightest 
hint that any of the scoffers did repent even after 
the rising deluge deprived them of all hope of deliv- 
erance. Peter elsewhere declares that God did not 
spare them, that He overwhelmed the world of the 
ungodly (2 Peter ii: 5). Scripture furnishes no evi- 
dence whatever that any of the apostate antediluvians 
who were drowned repented and were saved at the 
last moment. The whole description of them leads 
to the belief that Noah and his household alone of 
that entire generation were children of God and saved. 

Some other interpretations of the passage deserve 
more extended notice, and to these we now turn. 

(1) The preaching was addressed to the spirits of 
the Old Testament saints who, till the death of Christ, 
were held in some sort of detention in the unseen 
world. This was the general opinion of the Early 
Fathers; it is that of some modern interpreters like- 
wise. Eph. iv: 8 is cited as proof: "When he 
ascended on high, he led captivity captive, and gave 
gifts unto men" (cf. Psalm lxviii: 18). The captives 
whom the triumphant Lord led were not imprisoned 
saints, but enemies of Him and of His people. Colos- 
sians ii: 15 explains who these were: "Having 
despoiled the principalities and the powers, he made 
a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it." 
If "the spirits" mentioned were Old Testament saints 
they could not be prisoners. They had believed and 
obeyed God. But Peter declares these spirits afore- 



FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 



time were disobedient, and that they lived on earth in 
Noah's day. They had scornfully rejected the divine 
testimony, were rebellious and apostate, and went to 
prison in consequence. They were not saints at all, 
but foes of God. 

Moreover, the term prison, which occurs some forty 
times in the New Testament as denoting a place of 
forcible detention, is in every instance employed in a 
bad sense, L e., as denoting a place of punishment, as 
the place in which those are confined who are charged 
with felony or crime. God does not lock up as crimi- 
nals the spirits of His own people who trust and obey 
Him when they pass out of this life into that beyond. 
We conclude, therefore, that "the spirits in prison" 
were not and could not be saints of former dispensa- 
tions. 

(2) The passage holds out no hope for a "second 
probation," that is, that after death there may be op- 
portunity to be saved. There is not a hint in it that 
any of "the spirits" preached to were set free from 
prison, even allowing that the proclamation was made 
to them by the Lord in the interval between His 
death and resurrection. Some interpreters are sure 
that "the spirits" were still in prison when Peter 
wrote. It has even been proposed to insert the word 
now in the text and to read thus : "Unto the spirits 
now in prison." If this opinion be accepted, and there 
is much to commend it, then thirty years and more 
after Christ's death and resurrection these unhappy 
disbelievers were still confined in prison waiting the 
awful judgment which would pronounce their final 



58 FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 



doom. They did not repent at the preaching of the 
Lord Jesus, even supposing that He did preach to 
them after His own death ; they remained and still re- 
main disobedient, incorrigible. This tremendous fact 
closes every door of hope for those who live and die 
in sin and impenitence. For, if the sinners of Noah's 
day rejected God's mercy and went into prison in 
Hades in consequence, and if after all the centuries 
ensuing down to the time of Christ's death and His 
alleged preaching to them in the prison did not lead 
to repentance and the release of so much as one of 
them, what possible ground of hope can there be for 
any others? 

Besides, Scripture represents men's state, whether 
saved or lost, as irreversible after their death. If the 
narrative of the Rich Man and Lazarus of Luke xvi 
teaches anything it teaches this. There are the two 
states clearly defined — Abraham's bosom and torment. 
Between the two the "great gulf" lies which for both 
sides is forever impassable. The destiny of both Laza- 
rus and Dives is unalterably fixed. From our passage 
a second offer of salvation to the lost in Hades cannot 
be legitimately inferred. 

But i Peter iv : 6 is urged as evidence on the other 
side, for it is believed by some that Peter here teaches 
the Gospel was preached to those already dead and it 
was received by them: "For unto this end was the 
gospel preached even to the dead, that they might be 
judged indeed according to men in the flesh, but live 
according to God in the spirit" (R. V.). What dead? 
Not to the spiritually dead who were still in the flesh 



FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 



59 



when the Apostle write, for ver. 5 forbids this inter- 
pretation; nor yet to those who dwell in the unseen 
world, disembodied spirits, but those who heard and 
believed the Gospel when they were living but were 
dead when Peter wrote — these are to be judged at 
last in the same way as those living now. Peter evi- 
dently has in mind Christians who had suffered for the 
Name, perhaps had been even put to death because 
of their faith, judged by men as wicked, but who will 
be fully vindicated at Christ's bar. We return now to 
the main theme of the passage. 

(3) Did Christ personally proclaim the Gospel to 
the "spirits in prison" in the interval between His 
death and resurrection? Unhesitatingly we reply no. 
The phrase, "put to death in the flesh," is co-ordinate 
with the parallel phrase, "quickened by the spirit," 
"made alive in the spirit" (Ver. 18, R. V.). "Flesh" 
and "spirit" are antithetical, are in sharp contrast with 
each other. It is insisted by those who advocate the 
affirmative of the question above that "flesh" signifies 
Christ's body, and that "spirit" must mean His human 
spirit. The preposition in must be inserted before 
each term — "in flesh," "in spirit." It is hence inferred 
that the Lord in His human spirit which was made 
alive to a higher and more active state of existence 
after His death personally went and preached to the 
spirits in prison in Hades ; therefore the preaching was 
in the interval between His death and His resurrection. 
Such is the argument urged in support of the theory 
that the Lord preached to the dead. 

We cannot accept this exegesis; we do not believe 



6o 



FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 



that on just principles of interpretation the passage 
teaches this. To begin with, the phrase "put to death 
in the flesh," is uncommon ; it is a departure from the 
ordinary way of speaking of death. As Barnes says, 
"How singular it would be to say of Isaiah or of Paul 
or of Peter that they were put to death in the flesh !" 
The phrase seems to indicate that there was something 
extraordinary in His death, that it was His humanity 
that died, but that there was in Him a nature that did 
not die, nor could — His divine nature, His eternal 
Spirit as the Son of God. We must not limit the con- 
trast to "flesh" and "spirit ;" both clauses must be em- 
braced in it, "put to death in the flesh," and "made 
alive in the Spirit." The Lord's human soul was 
sundered from His body by death just as these are 
sundered in all men when death overtakes them. But 
He did not remain under the power of death ; it was 
"not possible that he should be holden of it" (Acts 
ii: 24). Accordingly, Peter adds, "but was quickened 
in (by) the spirit" (Spirit). 

The word quickened occurs in ten other places be- 
sides this, and there is no mistaking its meaning. In 
seven, viz. : John v : 21 (twice) ; Rom. iv : 17 ; viii : 1 1 ; 
1 Cor. xv : 22, 36, 45, it refers to the resurrection of 
the dead. In three, viz. : John vi : 63 ; 2 Cor. iii : 6 ; 
Gal. iii: 21, it denotes the giving of spiritual life. In 
each case it signifies to give life where before it had 
ceased to be, or where it had never been. The same 
word is found in two other places, but with an affix, 
Eph. ii: 5; Col. ii : 13. But in these as everywhere 
else it denotes the impartation of life where it was not 



FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 



61 



found before. Graham (in Ephesians ii : 5) expresses 
its precise meaning: "This quickening is the spiritual 
resurrection of the soul from a state of sin and death 
as the prelude and pledge of the literal resurrection at 
the coming of Christ." Prof. Cremer defines it as the 
action by which the dead are raised to life whether as 
to the body or the soul, and he cites 1 Peter iii: 18 as 
proof. 

Those who hold that it was Christ's human soul that 
was quickened must impose upon the word quickened 
a meaning which the New Testament forbids. So we 
are told that it means a more active life, a fuller life, 
an increase of life, a life fitting Him to preach to 
Hades sinners ! But everywhere else it means giving 
life, bringing to life. This could not be said of His 
human spirit, for assuredly it did not die. What then 
was it which was made alive ? Exactly that which had 
been put to death, His "flesh," His humanity. Quick- 
ened signifies resurrection. The very body which lay 
in Joseph's tomb was on the morning of the third day 
made alive by the mighty power of God. This inter- 
pretation balances exactly the antithetical clause, 
"put to death in the flesh." What had been put to 
death is made alive in resurrection. 

Is it quite certain that "spirit" means Christ's human 
spirit? The Revisions, both English and American, 
print it with a small s instead of the capital S of King 
James, thus taking it to denote His human spirit. But 
if this be so, "quickened" must be given a meaning it 
does not bear wherever else it occurs. "Spirit" 
stands in sharp contrast with "flesh ;" it is that which 



62 



FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 



did not die. Obviously, if it be taken as denoting the 
Agent by whom He was quickened, then it certainly 
denotes Christ's divine nature, His Godhead. Rom- 
ans i: 3, 4 presents a similar contrast between His 
natures, human and divine. He was of the seed of 
David according to the flesh, He was declared to be 
the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of 
holiness by the resurrection from the dead. Here also 
there is a sharp contrast, the seed of David stands in 
contrast with the Son of God. Of course, His human 
spirit was holy, but it was an essential part of His hu- 
manity, and hence the expression, "Spirit of holiness" 
cannot mean His human spirit. It must be His divine 
nature that is meant. According to that nature He 
was declared to be the Son of God by the resurrec- 
tion from the dead. So in I Peter iii: 18 His being 
quickened into resurrection life is by the same divine 
nature, the Spirit of the living God. By His own in- 
finite power, His Deity, He is raised from the dead 
(John ii: 19). 

It was in this Spirit, or by this Spirit, He went and 
preached to the spirits in prison. It is contended that 
"went" implies a personal going by Him to the realm 
of the dead. Not necessarily. In Eph. ii: 17 we read, 
"And (Christ) came and preached peace to you which 
were afar off." The preaching was in this instance 
by the Lord Jesus Himself, and yet it was not done by 
Him in person, but by His Spirit in His servants, 
Paul and companions. 

We understand, therefore, the preaching to the 
spirits in prison to have been done by the Spirit of 



FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 



6 3 



Christ through Noah, "the preacher of righteousness," 
as Peter calls him elsewhere (2 Peter ii: 5), to the 
antediluvians. But they refused the message, they 
gave no heed to the solemn warning, they hardened 
their hearts by their disobedience, and hence became 
prisoners in Hades. Gen. vi: 3 reads, "And Jehovah 
said, My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for 
that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be a hundred 
and twenty years." That is to say, His Spirit should 
strive, in the testimony of Noah, during a hundred and 
twenty years and no longer. Now it would be an ex- 
traordinary thing that with those persons only (for 
Peter speaks only of them) the Lord should strive in 
testimony after their death. Is that at all likely? Is 
there so much as a hint in all the rest of Scripture 
that He offers salvation after their death to those who 
in their lifetime heard the message and rejected it? 
There is absolutely none. 

It is not a description of all that died in unbelief, but 
of a generation favored with a special testimony and 
threatened with a particular stroke of judgment. They 
were those who despised the testimony of Christ 
through Noah. Just as His Spirit prophesied in the 
prophets, so the Spirit of Christ preached by Noah. 
Nor was the preaching to spirits when they were in 
prison, but to the disobedient before they became pris- 
oners in Hades. Multitudes of the ungodly perished 
before the Flood ; for ages after it greater multitudes 
died in their sins. Many of these, perhaps the ma- 
jority of them, never had an offer of salvation made 
to them. Why should these countless multitudes be 



64 



FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 



ignored by the Saviour, and those alone of Noah's day 
have a second offer of mercy? For one hundred and 
twenty years they had the testimony of Noah by the 
Spirit of Christ warning, rebuking and entreating 
them, but all in vain. They kept right on in their re- 
bellion and apostasy till the tremendous judgment so 
long impending broke clown upon them in all its deso- 
lating fury. Now, should these imprisoned spirits 
have a second offer of pardon and of life in the unseen 
world, while all others there, who never had a chance 
at all, be passed by in merciless neglect and pitiless 
silence? Would such partiality be fair or equitable? 
Does God who is righteous and holy thus do? 

On the contrary, there is proof that those who in 
this life refuse His message in unbelief are at length 
abandoned and left to their fate even in the present 
world. When the shadow of the Cross was already 
falling on the Lord's pathway, and when it was de- 
termined by the rulers and the people that He must 
die, Jesus uttered His lament over the guilty city — a 
mournful dirge it is and a sentence of woe indescriba- 
ble — "If thou hadst known in this thy day the things 
which belong to thy peace ! but now they are hid from 
thine eyes" (Luke xix: 41-44) ; "Behold, your house 
is left unto you desolate" (Matt, xxiii: 37-39). Ere 
long the awful verdict was executed ; the city was de- 
stroyed, the temple burned, and Israel went into an 
exile which endures to this day, and will till the Lord 
shall come again. When scornful rejection of mercy 
is complete, when disobedience has culminated in re- 
bellion and apostasy, and the sentence of doom has 



FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 65 



been pronounced, judgment, appalling and overwhelm- 
ing, falls and probation ends. If this takes place even 
in this life, how much more certainly does it in the 
world beyond where destiny is forever fixed? 

Did Christ's human spirit at His death go into 
Hades, into the region of the lost? Did He "descend 
into hell?" Believed by many, doubted by some, de- 
nied by others. Christ's seventh and last saying on 
the Cross was His calm and trustful prayer, "Father, 
into thy hands I commend my spirit" (Luke xxiii: 46). 
Was not that prayer heard and answered? Who 
would be so bold as to deny that it was? If, then, His 
human spirit at His death went to the Father, it did 
not go to the realm of the spirits in prison. The 
Father most certainly was not in that region. More- 
over, to the penitent thief at His side he promised, 
"Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with me 
in Paradise." Where was Paradise? In 2 Cor. xii: 
2-4 Paul identifies Paradise with the "third heaven," 
with the highest heaven, with God's own habitation. 
The promise to the overcomer in Ephesus (Rev. ii: 7) 
is, "to him will I give to eat of the tree of life which 
is in the midst of the paradise of God" (cf. Rev. xxii : 1, 
2). Prof. Swete is exactly right, Paradise is the "final 
joy of the saints in the presence of God and of Christ" 
(Com. in loc). Taking His prayer and promise to- 
gether the inference is indisputable that Jesus Christ 
in the most solemn hour of all time, in the awful hour 
of His death on the cross, confidently and assuredly 
expected to go into the Father's presence, into Para* 
dise, God's heavenly abode. Is anyone so presump- 
5 



66 FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 



tuous as to affirm that He was disappointed? If 
heaven was the place of His sojourn in the interval 
between His death and resurrection, then it is mani- 
fest He did not go to the place in Hades where wicked 
spirits are confined. Therefore He did not at that 
time preach to the spirits in prison, for He was not 
there. 

It may be asked, however, did He not go to Hades 
according to Psalm xvi : 10, and Peter's exposition of 
it in Acts ii: 25-32? Yes, but not necessarily to the 
abode of the lost. Sheol and Hades alike designate 
the unseen world, the world of departed spirits, not 
necessarily a place of torment and of misery unless 
expressly mentioned. Hades denotes the intermediate 
state, the abode of the disembodied human spirit till 
the resurrection at the coming of the Lord Jesus 
Christ. Jesus Himself went thither at His death, and 
both the Psalm and Peter's explanation announce the 
glorious truth that our Lord's spirit should not tarry 
in the unseen world, nor should His body see corrup- 
tion in the grave, for His resurrection should speedily 
follow His death and burial. 

For us the passage in First Peter iii : 18-20, with all 
its difficulties of interpretation, teaches the following 
truths : 

1. Jesus Christ was put to death as a substitute for 
sinners, the just for the unjust, that they might be 
brought unto God. 

2. He was made alive again by the resurrection from 
the dead, and He now lives in the power of an endless 
life. 



FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 



6/ 



3. His resurrection was effected by the almighty 
power of God. 

4. By the same power, His own eternal Spirit, He 
went by His servant Noah to the Antediluvians and 
proclaimed to them His truth — truth that invited, 
warned and threatened them with overwhelming 
judgment. 

5. Noah's contemporaries refused the message, re- 
jected the messenger and persisted in their disobedi- 
ence and unbelief. 

6. The flood "destroyed them all," and their spirits 
are now confined in the prison of the lost where they 
await the final judgment (2 Peter ii: 9; Jude 6). 

7. The passage holds out no hope for the impeni- 
tent, it forbids the notion that those who during the 
earthly life refuse the Gospel of God's grace may have 
a second chance in the world beyond, and may be ulti- 
mately saved. 

No preaching to the dead is its lesson. 



SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 

The Second Epistle of Peter comes to us with less 
historical support of its genuineness than any other 
book of the New Testament. Origen (c. A. D. 230) 
is the first writer who mentions it by name, but he is 
careful to say that its authority was questioned. 
Eusebius and Jerome state the same general fact, 
though Jerome included it in his Vulgate Version, 
while Eusebius speaks of First Peter as generally ac- 
cepted, but of the second as quite doubtful. It seems 
certain that it was not formally admitted into the 
Canon of Scripture until near the close of the fourth 
century by the Councils of Laodicea (A. D. 372) and 
Carthage (A. D. 397). The historical attestation to its 
canonicity is thus seen to be meagre indeed. Accord- 
ingly, many are even now in doubt as to its integrity. 

It must be added that there was a strong tendency 
in sub-apostolic times to use Peter's name to give 
credit to apocryphal writings. There are such writ- 
ings extant, as e. g., The Gospel of Peter, Apocalypse 
of Peter, Acts of Peier, etc. These and the like spuri- 
ous books belong to the second century of our era, or 
even later, and hence are of no authority touching the 
matters of which they treat. They exhibit, however, 
the tendency of the age in which they were produced, 
and the possibility that Second Peter might likewise 

68 



SECOND EPISTLE OF P k. 6y 



be spurious. But would they have come into exist- 
ence had Peter never written anything? The fact of 
abundant forgery is at once an evidence that some gen- 
uine writings of the Apostle existed and were re- 
ceived generally as his. 

The internal evidence in the support of the genuine- 
ness of Second Peter is clear and strong. It opens 
with the positive statement of Peter's authorship — 
"Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ" — - 
The insertion of Simon, the old Hebrew name, in the 
forefront of the document is significant. If a forger 
had been writing in Peter's name at the opening of his 
false letter he almost certainly would have followed 
the First Epistle and simply written, "Peter, an apostla 
of Jesus Christ." Note also that "servant" is intro- 
duced in the Second Epistle, but is absent from the 
First. He calls himself a servant and apostle of 
Jesus Christ. "Although several pseudonymous writ- 
ings appear in early Christian literature, there is no 
Christian document of value written by a forger who 
uses the name of an Apostle" (Dods). If this im- 
portant statement is accepted at its full worth, it goes 
far to settle the question of authorship, for the writer 
inserts the name Apostle at the opening of his epistle — 
"an Apostle of Jesus Christ." 

Moreover, the writer is distinctively a Christian ; he 
addresses those who "have obtained a like precious 
faith with us in the righteousness of our God" (i: i). 
His is the same precious faith which all the saints 
enjoy; his also the exceeding great and precious prom- 
ises of God, and he expects with all other believers to 



70 Si T D EPISTLE OF PETER. 



be made a partaker of the divine nature (i: 3, 4). Is 
it at all probable or likely that one with such a faith 
and such expectations would deliberately falsify the 
name of Simon Peter and turn liar? The writer is 
unsparing in his denunciations of false teachers, cor- 
rupters of others, rebels against God, hypocrites and 
apostates (ii). He instances the fall of the angels, 
the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the rebuke 
of Balaam, as examples of the doom of those who 
know the truth and yet live in shameful sin and 
crime. Would a Christian and servant of Jesus Christ 
be at all likely to commit in the most flagrant manner 
the things he so vehemently condemns? If the writer 
was not the Apostle Peter, he was a false teacher, a 
corrupter of others, and a hypocrite, which to us 
seems incredible. 

He associates himself with the other Apostles, is in 
full sympathy with Paul, is acquainted with Paul's 
epistles, and he holds and teaches the same funda- 
mental truth. An apostolic spirit breathes through 
this document such as is not found in a spurious writ- 
ing, and such as a forger never exhibits. He is anx- 
iously concerned for the purity of the faith, and for 
the steadfastness and holiness of the saints. He 
exhorts them to give "diligence that ye may be found 
in peace, without spot and blameless in his sight," and 
that they "grow in the grace and knowledge of our 
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." All this and very 
much more of like devout teaching is apostolic in tone 
and betokens genuineness and reality. 

Furthermore, the writer appeals to certain facts in 



SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER. 



the life of Peter which make his epistle almost auto- 
biographical. For example, he speaks of "putting off 
of my tabernacle even as our Lord Jesus Christ 
showed me" (i: 13, 14). The reference undoubtedly 
is to John xiii: 36; xxi: 18, 19. In the latter passage 
Jesus distinctly announced to Peter that his death was 
to be one of violence, even crucifixion, and that it 
would occur when the Apostle was an old man. He 
claims to have been a witness of the Transfiguration 
(i: S6-18). We know from the record of the Gospels 
that Peter was one of the three who were present 
when the Lord's person glowed with an unearthly 
brightness. He indirectly claims the inspiration with- 
out which true prophecy is impossible (i: 19-21). He 
asserts that this is his "second epistle" (iii: 1). This 
testimony on the part of the writer is personal, em- 
phatic and direct. It reads exactly like Peter's p> **- 
ner of speaking of himself at the Council o* ^pd- 
salem, "Ye know that a good while ago God made 
choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles 
should hear the word of the Gospel and believe." 

Jude appears to quote from Second Peter. The 
question as to the priority of these two epistles, viz. : 
Second Peter and Jude, is by no means settled. 
Writers are pretty evenly divided. Chase, Peake and 
Plumtre hold that Jude is the older, while Zahn, 
Lumby, and apparently Dods regard Second Peter as 
the older. In favor of the latter view, which the present 
writer accepts, it may be argued: 1. That Jude, who 
seems to quote from the Book of Enoch and to refer 
indirectly at least to the apocryphal Assumption of 



SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 



Moses, would more probably quote from Peter than 
Peter from Jude. Indeed there is no evidence that Peter 
cites from any writer. 2. Peter's description of the 
false teachers and corruptors of truth points mainly 
to the future. His prominent verbs are in the future 
tense, e. g., ii: I, 2, 3, 12, etc. Certainly he uses the 
present tense in his description of the evil character 
and conduct of these hypocrites and apostates, but 
their presence among the saints he puts in the future. 
The deadly germs were already there, the rank growth 
would speedily follow. Jude, on the contrary, 
throughout his epistle speaks of them as already come ; 
his objects are present, they are in the midst of the 
children of God, these "filthy dreamers," these "mur- 
murers." It seems to us certain that while Paul in 
his address to the Ephesian Elders (Acts xx: 28-30), 
and in his epistle to Timothy (2 Tim. iii: 1-9), and 
Peter in his second letter, alike predict the coming of 
the antinomians and the heretics, Jude describes them 
as actually here, prosecuting their wicked work with 
shameless effrontery. He writes, "But, beloved, re- 
member ye the words which have been spoken before 
by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; that they 
said unto you, In the last time there shall be mockers, 
walking after their own ungodly lusts" (vers. 17, 18). 
One of the Apostles here mentioned seems certainly 
to have been Peter, Paul perhaps was another. Peter 
writes as follows: "That ye should remember the 
words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, 
and the commandment of the Lord and Saviour 
through your apostles : knowing this first, that in the 



SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER. 



last days mockers shall come with mockery, walking 
after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the prom- 
ise of his coming?" (2 Peter iii: 2-4). The close re- 
semblance of these passages to each other extends to 
the words and phrases. Both urge 'their readers to 
'"remember," both date the fulfilment of the prediction 
at the "last time," both use the term "mockers," and 
both say that the prediction came through "the apos- 
tles." But, note, that Peter affirms that the fulfilment 
was still future when he wrote, but Jude declares that 
it is already fulfilled in his day, for he goes on to say, 
"These are they who make separations, sensual, hav- 
ing not the Spirit" (v. 19). It appears to us that be- 
yond question Jude quotes from both Peter and Paul, 
and that he has specially in mind the words of Peter. 
Therefore Second Peter is older than Jude, and hence 
beyond doubt canonical, if Jude is. 

The keyword of First Peter is Hope; of Second 
Peter Knowledge. 

I. It has often been observed that the Apostle uses 
the term knowledge with much frequency, and in such 
connections and with such fulness of significance as to 
disclose the great importance he attaches to it (i: 2, 
3, 5, 6, 8; ii: 20, 21; iii: 18). The word he uses is 
generally in the intensified form, viz. : full knoivledge. 
Christians should know the truth and the whole truth ; 
they should be able to detect error, and recognize the 
times in which they live; they should know the dan- 
gerous world that surrounds them and that ever seeks 
to poison their minds, debase their affections, neutral- 
ize their testimony, and paralize their faith. Hence 



74 



SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER. 



Peter's final appeal is, "Grow in grace and in the 
knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" 
(iii: 18). 

2. The basis of true knowledge (i: 1-4). It springs 
from a living faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and in 
the "exceeding great and precious promises" which 
Divine Power has given us. This knowledge leads us 
into acquaintance with the righteousness of God, with 
our calling as believers, and with the glorious destiny 
that awaits them who know and trust God. 

3. Growth in knowledge (i: 5-11 ). "And besides 
all this, giving all diligence, add to your faith," etc. 
The term "add" scarcely expresses the apostle's 
thought. It is a somewhat peculiar word originally 
used of one who supplied all the equipments and fur- 
nishings needed by the Greek Chorus. The idea of 
supply should certainly be retained: "In your faith 
supply virtue." He does not ask that faith be sup- 
plied; that these believers already had. But starting 
with faith as the foundation of all, let the other ex- 
cellencies and virtues be richly and abundantly fur- 
nished. Let there be no lack of equipment here, for 
far more is it needed than was furnishing by the 
Chorus of the old Greek tragedy. What a magnifi- 
cent cluster the apostle here gives! Each springs out 
of the other; each is strengthened by the other. "In 
your faith supply virtue," or fortitude, manliness ; and 
let virtue supply "knowledge." Knowledge by itself 
alone tends to "puff up." But tempered by the 
others, by self-control, by patience, by godliness, by 
love, knowledge becomes one of the most essential and 



SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER. 



75 



powerful excellencies in the Christian character. Paul 
begins his list of the "fruits of the Spirit" with love 
(Gal. v: 22). Peter ends his with love. It is like a 
( chain, each link holds fast to its fellow, and is a part 
of the whole. It matters little at which end of the 
chain we begin the count, for the links form a unity, 
and to touch one is to touch all. Each is strong by 
the strength derived from the other. The apostle 
urges diligence to furnish all these; "adding on your 
part all diligence." God freely gives what we need 
and all we need; let it be ours by conscious effort to 
add to the supply. 

The motive to such diligence lies in this, (a) that 
no barrenness nor unfruitfulness in the full knowl- 
edge of our Lord Jesus Christ may blight our lives; 
(b) and that thereby may be richly supplied to us the 
entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord Jesus 
Christ. 

4. The inerrancy of the sources of saving knowl- 
edge (i: 16-21). 

The apostle rests his truth on two trustworthy facts : 
(a) the fact and meaning of the Saviour's Transfigu- 
ration; (b) the fact of the inspiration of the Holy 
Spirit. Taken together these two great facts invest 
his teaching with infallible certainty and authority. 

I. "For we have not followed cunningly devised 
fables, when we made known unto you the power and 
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewit- 
nesses of his majesty." Pagan mythology, so widely 
prevailing at the time in Asia Minor, was composed 
largely of myths (Peter's word) which were skilfully 



76 SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER. 



framed and poetically embellished. The cabalism of 
the Jews, heathen myths, and the wild vagaries that 
were springing up in the bosom of the Christian 
Church itself, had no place whatever in the message 
of the Gospel nor in the apostolic teaching and preach- 
ing. What Peter and his fellow-apostles taught was 
the very truth of God, and this, without admixture of 
human wisdom or speculation, had been made known 
to the "elect sojourners" for their instruction and 
comfort. The teaching was with absolute fidelity and 
certainty. For Peter and James and John were eye- 
witnesses of the majestic scene on the mouth of Trans- 
figuration. They saw with their own eyes the super- 
human brightness and splendor with which the Lord's 
person glowed, they saw the two heavenly visitants 
who appeared in glory and who conversed with Jesus, 
they heard the voice of God out of the cloud, and they 
beheld that cloud which is always the symbol of the 
Divine Presence. If any men ever were competent 
and credible in their testimony surely these were the 
men. This knowledge they had given out to their 
fellow-believers. 

Peter intimates that the Transfiguration was at once 
the pledge and a specimen of the Lord's Advent and 
of the Kingdom of God. The Synoptic Gospels 
which record it (Matt, xvii : 1-8; Mark ix: 2-8; Luke 
ix: 28-36), leave little room for doubt that the Lord 
so intended it. He said, "There be some standing 
here who shall not taste of death till they see," etc. 
Lillie and others hold that this promise had its fulfil- 
ment in the spectacle of the Transfiguration. The 



SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER. 



view is supported by the variously expressed objects 
they were to see before they died. In Matthew it is, 
"till they see the Son of Man coming in His king- 
dom." In Mark, "till they see the Kingdom of God 
come with power." In Luke, "till they see the King- 
dom of God." Two chief things they should see — 
the coming of Christ and the coming of the Kingdom. 
Peter appears to have both in view when he mentions 
the "power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." 
Mark's words, "Kingdom come with power," answers 
to Peter's "power." And Matthew's "Son of Man 
coming" answers to Peter's "coming." It seems cer- 
tain that in some deep sense the apostle saw in the 
Transfiguration a pledge and sample of the future ad- 
vent of Christ and the establishment of God's King- 
dom in power and glory over the whole earth. 

The scene itself witnesses to the same general fact, 
(i) The Lord's person suddenly shone with a majesty 
and glory such as commonly was hid from mortal 
gaze. "Tlis face did shine as the sun, and His rai- 
ment was white as the light." In heaven He is encir- 
cled with the transcendant glories of the throne of 
God. But when He shall come again to our world it' 
will be in His own glory, such as was displayed in its 
dazzling beauty before the overwhelmed gaze of His 
disciples. (2) Two men from the unseen world ap- 
peared also in glory, Moses and Elijah. They repre- 
sented the Law and the Prophets. They represented 
much more. The one had died, and he of mortals alone 
had the distinguished honor, the matchless dignity, of 
being buried by the Lord Himself (Deut. xxxiv: 5, 6). 



78 SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER. 



Moses stood for the sleeping saints who shall be raised 
up in glory when Christ comes. Elijah for living be- 
lievers who shall be "changed" (i Cor. xv: 51, 52), 
and who like Elijah shall not pass through death 
(1 Cor. xvi; 1 Thess. iv). (3) Three men were pres- 
ent, witnesses of the wondrous scene, who in some 
measure shared in it, who were in the flesh and who 
stand for mankind living when Christ shall return to 
the world for its redemption. (4) There was the 
Shekinah Cloud, symbol of the Divine Presence, and 
the voice of God speaking from the cloud. Here was 
nearness of the Father, two glorified saints from the 
unseen world, Jesus shining with dazzling splendor 
and beauty, and three mortal men participants of the 
majestic display. 

Peter adds, "And we have the word of prophecy 
made more sure" (i: 19). This is the rendering of 
the Revision, and there can be little doubt of its cor- 
rectness. The Transfiguration has confirmed what 
the prophets had said touching the future and God's 
purposes to make this earth once more a Paradise and 
thus restore it to the lost fellowship of heaven. Every 
word He has spoken is to be made good to men, to 
the globe, to the dead and to the living friends of God. 
For Christ has suffered, His glories must follow ; the 
august proof of it is Christ's Transfiguration, the 
Cloud and Voice of God, the presence of Moses and 
Elijah, the presence also of the disciples, and the shin- 
ing person of the Lord. All this, the apostle affirms, 
confirms in a most cogent fashion the prophetic Scrip- 
ture, and pledges the fulfilment of every work spoken- 



SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER. 



79 



through the prophets. The historical fact of the 
Transfiguration is a signal proof that Peter and his 
fellow-apostles did not follow "cunningly devised fa- 
bles when they made known to Christians the power 
and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." 

2. The second fact is the inspiration of the men of 
God, i: 20, 21. "No prophecy of Scripture is of pri- 
vate interpretation. For no prophecy ever came by 
the will of man: but men spake from God, being 
moved by the Holy Spirit." "Knowing this first," i. e., 
we recognize this as primary truth, we settle definitely 
in our minds when we sit down to the study of 
prophecy. "Private interpretation," i. e., "private" in 
the sense of "one's own ;" "interpretation," i. e., origin, 
origination. Prophecy never comes by the exercise of 
the prophet's own gifts and talents, nor by his shrewd 
guessing, his wise calculation, his profound and pro- 
longed thought. No ; it is neither by man's unaided 
talent, nor by man's application, it is wholly of God. 
From Him it comes, by Him it is revealed. It was 
brought to the prophet, as it is brought to us. It is not 
to be tied up to the times of the prophet, nor is it to 
be explained and unfolded by man's device. "Holy 
men," Peter, John, Paul, and all the others, "spoke 
from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit." 

5. Peter's Three Worlds, iii: 5-13. Of course three 
globes are not meant, but three vast epochs, three enor- 
mous periods in the history of the earth. The apostle 
divides its history into three clearly defined sections, 
and treats each of these with some fulness of detail; 
at least he mentions the characteristic features of each, 
and to these we are now to attend. 



So SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER. 

(i) "The world that then was" (iii: 6). This is 
Peter's first world. It was the antediluvian world, the 
world which the Flood destroyed (vs. 5, 6; Gen. vi, 
vii). The commonly received chronology makes the 
duration of that ancient world 1656 years. Its end 
was distinguished by colossal wickedness and apostasy 
from God, and the divine judgment which swept away 
the entire race with the exception of eight souls, Noah 
and his family. 

Scoffers in Peter's time asked no doubt with a sneer, 
"Where is the promise of His coming? for, from the 
day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as 
they were from the beginning of the creation.' , These 
mockers appeal to the continuity of natural processes, 
to the inviolability of nature's laws, and they assert 
that on these grounds there never will be an Advent of 
Christ and judgment of the world, as Christians be- 
lieve and teach. Natural law goes on without inter- 
ruption and without a break. Nature keeps her track 
with unwavering precision. There is no sign of any 
change; no catastrophe is likely, indeed is possible. 
The promise of His coming fails. These skeptics wil- 
fully forget that a mighty cataclism did once over- 
whelm the world. The Flood drowned every living 
thing save those within the sheltering Ark. God had 
said, "The end of all flesh is come before me; for the 
earth is filled with violence through them: and, be- 
hold, I will destroy them with the earth" (Gen. vi: 
13). "And every living thing was destroyed that was 
upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and 
creeping things, and birds of the heavens" (Gen. vii: 



SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER. 8l 

23). It was a worldwide disaster that happened to 
that old antediluvian age, and its end was frightful 
indeed. Since, then, this is a historical fact the infidel 
question of the mockers is foolish and false. The 
world that then was perished under God's fearful 
judgment, and He has assured us that the Lord Jesus 
shall come again from heaven with His mighty angels 
in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not 
God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus 
Christ (2 Thess. 1 : 7, 8). 

The Flood must have profoundly affected the con- 
ditions of life on the earth. The physical changes in- 
troduced by it seem to have been very great, greater 
indeed than most students of the Bible ascribe to it. 
If the conclusions derived from personal examination 
by Prof. G. Frederick Wright be accepted as true, and 
no geologist of the age is more worthy of credence 
than he, that the Deluge prevailed over a very large 
portion of the earth's surface, and that a submergence 
of the land took place, then we can readily perceive 
how deeply affected were the conditions of life. The 
world appears to be different after the disaster ; it was 
no longer fitted to be the home of men who before it 
lived for centuries. Longevity almost immediately be- 
gan to change; life began to shorten, and in a com- 
paratively brief time it sank to the term of years that 
now bounds it. Noah lived 950 years (Gen. ix: 29). 
Shem, his son born before the Flood, died at the age 
of 600, a reduction of 350 years in a single generation. 
With Noah's grandson, Arphaxad, there is further re- 
duction : he died at the age of 438 years. In five gen- 
6 



82 



SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER. 



erations life was shortened to but little more than 200 
years. Is it not possible, is it not probable that the 
Deluge brought about such changes in climate, in soil, 
and in the atmosphere as to make the long life of the 
antediluvian age impossible? At any rate, we may 
well conjecture that the conditions so favorable to a 
prolonged period of existence in "the world that then 
was" passed away under the awful judgment of God. 
Floods of water are not purifiers, floods of fire are, as 
we shall presently see. 

(2) Peter's second world is, "the heavens and the 
earth which are now" (iii: 7). It is the present order 
of things in sky and earth that is meant. The world 
that now is — it is a singular sort of expression, and 
seems to indicate that it is neither permanent nor final. 
Hence the apostle goes on to say that it is "stored up 
for fire" (R. V.), or, better, as the margin reads, 
"stored with fire," i. e., it contains within itself the 
agency by which it may yet be consumed. The world 
that now is, is held in strict custody, reserved, not for 
a second deluge, but for fire. The advent of Christ 
and the judgment which shall ensue upon His coming 
are constantly associated in Scripture with fire, with 
a mighty conflagration. "Our God shall come and 
shall not keep silence; a fire shall devour before him, 
and it shall be very tempestuous round about him" 
(Psalms 1:3). "For, behold, the Lord will come with 
fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render 
his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of 
fire. For by fire and by his sword will the Lord plead 
with all flesh" (Isa. lxvi: 15, 16). Thus likewise in 



SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER. 



83 



the vision of Daniel : "A fiery stream issued and came 
forth from before him. ... I beheld, even till the 
beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to 
the burning flame." Nor is the New Testament silent 
on this point : "The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from 
heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire" 
(2 Thess. i: 7-9). 

These passages of Scripture and others of like im- 
port indicate that fire will be one of the physical at- 
tendants on the Lord's coming. But fire is not the 
only one. Voices, lightnings, thunders and earth- 
quakes v/ill also accompany that transcendent event. 
Three times does the Apocalypse testify to this fact, 
Rev. viii : 5 ; xi : 19 ; xvi : 18. These tremendous forces 
of nature will be employed as agents for the punish- 
ment of the ungodly and the apostates of that Day. 
But the judgments at the Advent, dreadful as they 
assuredly will be, appear to be inflicted mainly on 
God's enemies, the Dragon, the Beast, the False 
Prophet, and the vast multitudes that shall be deceived 
by these extraordinary foes. (See Rev. xii, xiii, xix). 
These are chief objects of the Divine wrath, and they 
appear at the time of the end. These passages, how- 
ever, fall far short of Peter's language. They say 
nothing of the melting of the elements with fervent 
heat, and the burning of the earth and its works, as 
Peter does : "But the day of the Lord will come as a 
thief ; in the which the heavens shall pass away with 
a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with 
fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are 
therein shall be burned up" (2 Peter iii: 10). The 



84 SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER. 



Day of the Lord is not one of four and twenty hours, 
but a prolonged period. The apostle intimates that it 
will cover a thousand years, i. e., the whole time of the 
Millennium (Rev. xx). It is of the close of this 
period that Peter speaks, not of its beginning, as 
John mainly does in the Revelation. 

Ample materials are stored up in the earth itself for 
its consumption by fire. The oils and the gases so 
inflammable and destructive in their energy can, when 
the time arrives, speedily reduce the order of things 
now existing to ashes. Peter's language does not sig- 
nify the annihilation of the earth, nor the dissolution 
of the atmosphere, nor the end of time. Fire does not 
annihilate, it dissolves existing combinations which 
may be recombined under new and different forms. 
He speaks of the cosmical convulsions and physical 
revolutions of both earth and sky, such as shall far 
surpass those of the Flood. But at the close of the 
Day of the Lord, when God shall have wrought His 
whole work in the earth, something new and tran- 
scendency glorious and beautiful shall supervene. 

(3) The third world is this: "But, according to 
his promise we look for new heavens and a new 
earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness" (2 Peter hi: 
13). It is the new world of righteousness and blessed- 
ness forever. It is Paradise restored. With the over- 
throw of the antediluvian world there began the new 
history of our race and the new order of things. 
With the destruction by fire of the present order there 
will follow the fulfilment of the majestic predictions 
and promises contained in the last two chapters of the 



SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER. 



85 



book of Revelation. This will be the eternal state, it 
will succeed the glories of the Millennial age, itself in- 
finitely more glorious than that. The Spirit is care- 
ful not to say that in the new heavens and new earth 
righteousness shall reign, for that would mean the 
millennial reign; but He says righteousness shall 
dwell therein; it is the permanent, abiding state; it is 
eternity. 

In Rev. xxi : 1-8 the New Testament seer, John the 
Apostle, reveals somewhat of the grandeur and the 
glory of that sorrowless state which is foretold. "And 
I saw a new heaven and a new earth : for the first 
heaven and the first earth were passed away; and 
there was no more sea." The fulfilment of this sub- 
lime prediction will involve a fundamental change in 
the constitution of the world that now is. Life would 
be impossible if the sea was no more. But He who 
made the world and all it contains can surely recreate 
it, clearing it of every vestige of sin and misery, of its 
imperfections and its limitations, fitting it for the 
dwelling of perfect beings and of God's supreme glory. 
Immanuel will dwell with the holy inhabitants of the 
new earth and in the new Jerusalem which is to de- 
scend into the glorified earth. Then will pass away 
forever death, mourning, crying and pain, and death- 
less life and painless bliss will never more be inter- 
rupted nor disturbed. John is bidden, Write, for these 
things are true and faithful; they shall not fail to 
come to pass. 

"Earth, thou grain of sand on the shore of the Uni- 
verse of God; thou Bethlehem, amongst the princely 



86 SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER. 



cities of the heavens, thou art, and remainest, the 
Loved One amongst ten thousand suns and worlds, 
the Chosen ©f God! On thee has the Lord a great 
work to complete." 



THE FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN 



Although no name is attached to this Scripture, it 
is very generally believed to be the production of the 
Apostle John. Witnesses to its authorship may be 
traced back almost to the end of the first century, and 
they had the best opportunity to know and to weigh 
the evidence. Its close connection with the Gospel 
according to John in thought and style must lead the 
reader to the conviction that both are the production 
of the same pen. 

It, with the other six of this group of epistles, is 
well called Catholic, or General, for it is not addressed 
to any body of Christians in particular, as are James 
and Peter, but to all believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. 
There is no age or people, no church, whether local or 
national, that may not claim it for its own and to 
which it may not unreservedly be applied. The two 
short epistles which follow this bear the names or 
designations to which they are addressed. But this 
has no inscription. It begins without salutation, and 
ends without benediction. The writer sometimes uses 
the first person when speaking of himself, but never 
mentions his own name. 

The style is one of artless simplicity and of singular 
beauty and purity. The sentences considered sepa- 
rately are marvellously clear, concise and profound. 
Each is perfect in itself and contains a distinct and 

87 



88 FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 



lucid thought. The style is sententious, at times al- 
most aphoristic. On this account it is often difficult to 
trace the connection between one sentence and 
another, one paragraph and another. Nevertheless, its 
unity is neither imperilled nor obscured by the style, 
its structure is flawless. It is built on a very distinct 
and noble plan, and the plan binds its parts into a 
harmonious whole. 

It abounds in repetitions. The same thought in 
almost identical language is repeated; often the idea 
being put in the positive, then immediately in the 
negative form. A most extraordinary criticism has 
been founded on this characteristic of the epistle, viz. : 
that it indicates the writer's old age and the "rambling 
prattle of an old man," who pours out pious senti- 
ments and reflections without method or aim. It is 
nothing of the sort. Instead of displaying weakness 
or garrulity, First John is the profoundest of all the 
Catholic epistles and the most difficult to expound. No 
one who has really studied it, who has gone down 
into its depths, or even tried to, could for a moment 
accept such a callow criticism as this. The repetitions 
spring from the nature of the writing and from the 
structure of John's mind, for he is of all the New 
Testament writers the most subtle, penetrating and an- 
alytic. He does not reason as does Paul, nor argue; 
he reveals; he sets his truth in the clearest light and 
lets it do its own work. For John is a Seer ; piercing 
insight into things is his great gift. Two features 
specially mark the epistle — the majesty of the 



FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 



89 



thoughts and the simplicity of the language- features 
which indicate the highest quality of genius. 

Antithesis is of frequent use in First John. Over 
against each thought is often placed its opposite in 
sharp contrast. Thus light and darkness, truth and 
falsehood, love and hate, life and death, children of 
God and children of the devil, follow one another in 
impressive alternation (cf. i: 8-10; iii: 8-10; iv: 4-6). 
Owing to this structure of sentences there is a sort of 
rythmical cadence sometimes observable, and one has 
arranged a portion of the first chapter as if it were 
verse : 

If we say we have no sin, 
We deceive ourselves, 
And the truth is not in us. 

If we confess our sins, 

He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, 

And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

If we say that we have not sinned, 
We make Him a liar; 
And His word is not in us. 

"In this instance it will be observed that we pass 
from one opposite to another and back again : but that 
to which we return covers more ground than the 
original position, and is a distinct advance upon it." 

Force and impressiveness lie in this method of in- 
struction. Such sentences remain in one's memory. 
The distinction between Christians and unbelievers is 
more sharply brought out thus than perhaps it could 
otherwise be. 



9o 



FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 



Its authority is another mark of the epistle. While 
throughout there is abundant evidence of John's 
tender affection for those whom he addresses, yet there 
is a tone of authority which is manifest everywhere. 
There is a dignity, a magisterial gravity, that makes 
the epistle both apostolic and commanding. There is 
no claim of authority set up, no assertion that he pos- 
sesses it, but a quiet word is spoken, a resistless 
strength displayed, from which there is no appeal, and 
a judgment passed that is felt to be infallible and 
final. Thus, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive 
ourselves, and the truth is not in us." Of him who 
claims to know the Lord and keeps not His com- 
mandments John says he is a liar (ii: 4) ; he that de- 
nies that Jesus is the Christ is a liar (ii: 22) : love of 
the brethren is the sure sign of being saved; hate of 
the brother the sign of being a murderer (iii: 14, 15). 
Like Paul in Corinthians and Galatians, like James and 
Peter, John writes with an authority that cannot be 
challenged, for we feel, we cannot but feel, that what 
he says and on what he passes sentence is the very 
truth of God. 

Its finality is the last thing to be mentioned here. The 
Gospel by John is the final Gospel, not only in point of 
time, but also in contents and aim. It completes the 
other three. The First Epistle of John is likewise 
final. This is true in point of time. It was probably 
written near the close of the apostle's life, i. e., the 
close of the first century. Perhaps somewhere be- 
tween A. D. 90-95 it was written. John speaks of 
those who denied that Jesus Christ was come in the 



FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 



91 



flesh (iv: 3). He seems to refer to certain sects that 
began to flourish about that time that held the Son of 
God could not ally Himself with flesh, with matter, 
for this is essentially evil, and the Divine Being could 
not come into contact with it without being contami- 
nated and degraded; hence Jesus was only a creature 
who received special endowment at His baptism for 
His great mission by the Spirit of God, but who died 
as a mere man, the Spirit having left Him at the time 
He cried, "Why hast thou forsaken me?" 

The epistle speaks of Antichrist and of the spirit of 
Antichrist, and of the many Antichrists, as if these 
were already in the world (ii: 18, 22; iv: 3). The 
uniform teaching of the apostles is that this adver- 
sary, Antichrist, is one of the very last foes of the 
cause and people of God, that his time will be but 
short, and that he will receive his doom at the hands 
of the Saviour Himself. Hence John writes, "Little 
children, it is the last hour." The final conflict is at 
hand, the last terrible battle is soon to be fought and 
won; therefore, be separate, vigilant, expectant. 



ANALYSIS. 

First John seems to fall into four parts, each of which will 
repay careful and earnest study. 

Part I. Introduction, chap, i: 1-4. 
Part II. Fellowship, i: 5 — ii: 29. 
Part III. Sonship, iii — v: 12. 
Part IV. Conclusion, v: 13-21. 



9 2 



FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 



John's Message. 

I. The Introduction, i: 1-4. Reading these four 
verses somewhat casually one might suppose that 
John's object is to tell what he and his fellow-apostles 
knew personally of the Saviour, of their intimacy with 
Him, and the blessed companionship they had with 
Him. But the apostle is not dealing here with the 
great fact of the "historical Christ," precious as that 
truth is, nor with the opportunities he had of know- 
ing Him, of entering into close acquaintance with 
Him. All this may be hinted at in these verses, but 
this is not John's subject nor the aim of his writing. 
Rather, his purpose is to instruct Christians in the 
doctrine of Eternal Life — its source, nature, posses- 
sion, maintenance and blessedness. Law promised 
life upon obedience; Eternal Life was brought by 
Jesus Christ. It was with the Father, it has been man- 
ifested in the person of the Lord Jesus, and by Him 
is given to all who are in Him, so that they and He 
have fellowship, actual partnership in the Life which 
is from God and which unites with God. Mark some 
of the main features of this Introduction: (1) The 
Eternal Life which was with the Father is now mani- 
* fested in Jesus Christ, the Word of Life. He has 
brought it near to dying men, He gives it to all who 
receive Him. (2) John and his fellow-apostles were 
eyewitnesses of this manifestation of the Life. Their 
testimony is corroborated by three of the most trust- 
worthy of our senses, viz. : hearing, sight, touch. 
John and his fellows heard Him, saw Him, gazed 
upon Him, handled Him. Note the climax; seeing is 



FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 



93 



more than hearing; prolonged looking is more than 
mere seeing; handling is more than all. (3) Partici- 
pation in the Life brings into fellowship with the 
Father and the Son. (4) John writes that all believers 
may have the same fellowship, and so have a full and 
blessed joy. 

God is Light. 

II. Fellowship, i : 5 — ii : 28. This is the first great 
theme John discusses, rather, that he opens to us. 
Understand by fellowship communion, partnership, 
and this with God and with one another. The passage 
treating of this theme embaces these points — its na- 
ture, its maintenance, its recovery when interrupted, 
and its fruits. He does not fail to tell us how we may 
know we have the fellowship, and what the signs are 
of its presence and of its absence. 

1. Character of Him with Whom fellowship is en- 
joyed, i: 5. "God is light." The apostle John gives 
us three most remarkable statements about God ; each 
of them may be regarded as a definition of what God 
is in Himself. These three declarations are, "God is 
a Spirit" (John iv : 24) ; "God is light" (1 John i: 5); 
"God is love" (1 John iv: 8). In all three the predicate 
has no article, "either definite or indefinite" (Plum- 
mer). "We are not told that God is the Spirit, or the 
Light, or the Love; nor (in all probability) that He 
is a Spirit, or a light." But God is Spirit, is Light, is 
Love: spirit, light, love are His very nature. "They 
are not mere attributes, like mercy and justice: they 
are Himself." They reveal to us in some measure 
what God is in Himself. The first relates ta His 



94 



FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN, 



Being, His Essence: He is Spirit, therefore He is 
without form, invisible, yet personal, individual, un- 
changeable. The second, Light, relates to His spirit- 
uality, His infinite purity and holiness. The third, 
Love, to His disposition. United the three tell us 
what God is. No philosophy, no religion, ever rose to 
such a height as this. How infinitely removed is this 
majestic revelation of God from the Zeus of the 
Greeks, Jupiter of the Romans, and Odin of our 
Saxon and Celtic ancestors. As Light God unites in 
Himself purity and clearness, beauty and glory, holi- 
ness and knowledge, and these in their perfections. 
John adds, "And darkness in him there is none at all," 
the emphatic order ©f his words. This intensifies the 
preceding thought; as Light God is subject to no dark- 
ness whatever; no obscuring of Him, no clouding of 
His purity is possible. As Light He is without ad- 
mixture, abridgement, or change. This is the pure 
and holy Being with whom fellowship is to be had. 

2. How Fellowship with God is maintained, i: 6 — 
ii : 2. In this section of the epistle the apostle exhibits 
how fellowship with God is sustained, and how it is 
recovered when it is interrupted or suspended.. The 
teaching is exceedingly practical and searching. 

(a) To have fellowship with God involves walking 
in the light, i: 6, 7. One must be in sympathy with 
His mind and will, must in some degree be like Tlim. 
"Can two walk together except they be agreed?" 
(Amos iii: 3). Walking means the daily life. To 
walk in the light signifies living in the element where 
God dwells, for God is light. To dwell thus with Him 



FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 



95 



presupposes that one is at peace with Him, that he 
loves His presence, and delights in communion with 
Him. Harmony with Him in what He loves and what 
He hates is indispensable to companionship with Him. 
But one may claim fellowship, yet deceive himself 
(ver. 6). (Note, the word "if" is repeated in each 
verse of the chapter from the 6th to the end.) The 
false claim is easily detected. If the one making it 
lives in sin, walks according to his own will and not 
God's, walks as he pleases, his claim is false, he lies 
and does not speak the truth. John's language is 
most emphatic and uncompromising. 

(b) Application of Christ's blood, ver. 7: "The 
blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all 
sin." It alone keeps us in the fellowship, and restores 
it when interrupted. Note the force of the present 
tense, cleanseth: it makes us clean, it keeps us clean. 
Christ's atonement effects two great results: it justi- 
fies the sinner in God's presence, and it sanctifies his 
life. Note the force of the singular number here "all 
sin;" i. e., every sin, every kind and sort of sin. The 
blood purifies completely and entirely; it includes the 
whole person, the heart, the mind, the will and affec- 
tions, in short, the life. 

(c) Confession of sin and its pardon, i: 8, 10. 
Let us not fail to see how radical the teaching is 
touching sin in believers and its forgiveness as the 
condition of fellowship. John does not blink mat- 
ters; with all the authority of an inspired apostle he 
writes, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive our- 
selves, and the truth is not in us." One who walks 



9 6 



FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 



in the light — may he not become at length free from 
sin? "If we say we do not have sin, we deceive our- 
selves, and the truth is not in us." The sentence is 
definite and precise: "If we say we do not have sin." 
No Christian, however upright in character and blame- 
less in conduct, is freed from inherent sin. Sin is 
still in him, though he has the mastery over it. It 
dwells in him, though he does not dwell in it. 
One who says he does not have sin in him is 
self-deceived. He does not deceive God, nor those 
who live with him, he deceives only himself. He leads 
himself astray. He ought to know better than to say 
such a thing, and he might; but he shuts his eyes to 
his actual state, and so "the truth is not in him." 

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to 
forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all un- 
righteousness." Unconfessed sin prevents fellowship. 
The holy Lord cannot hold communion with a self- 
righteous and self-satisfied sinner, nor can He with a 
saint who cherishes such a temper. The next best 
thing to not being a sinner at all is to confess one's 
sins. God is faithful to His promise to forgive when 
we honestly and truly confess, and righteous in doing 
so. He is just when He justifies him who believes in 
Jesus (Rom. iii: 26); He is just when He forgives 
His child who confesses his wrongdoing and repents 
of it. This gracious provision restores to fellowship 
when sin has interrupted it, or suspended it altogether. 

Fellowship with God is maintained by Christ's ad- 
vocacy of our cause before the Father, ii: 1, 2: "And 
if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, 



FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 



97 



Jesus Christ the righteous." "Advocate" is the same 
term which is used to designate the Holy Spirit as the 
Comforter (John xiv: 16, 26). It denotes the 
Saviour's intercession on the behalf of His people. 
He pleads their cause, He secures their pardon, 
peace and joy; He obtains for them the mercy and 
the grace they so constantly need. His plea always 
avails because He is "righteous." In Himself, in His 
ways and works here on earth, in His death and resur- 
rection, He has fulfilled all righteousness, has obeyed 
perfectly the Father's will, has glorified Him; and 
therefore Him the Father heareth always. Moreover, 
He is the propitiation for our sins, and on the ground 
of His finished redemption God justifies, pardons 
and saves all who trust in Him. It is thus that fellow- 
ship with God is maintained and restored when once 
it has been forfeited by disobedience and trespass. 

3. Requirements of Fellowship with God, ii: 3-17. 
How may we know that we are children of God? The 
inquiry is of vital moment to every Christian. All 
want assurance, induitable evidence that we belong 
to the heavenly family, and hence are in the light and 
are walking with God. In this section are infallible 
marks given by the Spirit Himself by which we may 
determine our state and standing before Him. 

(a) Obedience. "Hereby we do know that we know 
him, if we keep his commandments" (ii: 3). As if 
John said, "I give you an infallible sign of salvation 
and of fellowship with the Lord, viz. : obedience to His 
will." Every word in this short sentence is signifi- 
cant and emphatic. Into "commandments" he pours a 
7 



9 8 



FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 



wealth of meaning. He never uses the term law to 
express the rule of Christian obedience. In John's 
writings commandments generally denote the Saviour's 
injunctions (cf. ver. 5). 

A Christian is one who obeys his Lord always, not 
to secure eternal life for this he already has, but be- 
cause he is alive unto God, because he has come to 
know savingly the Lord Jesus. Christ is Lord. He 
has the right to command, we have the right only to 
obey. Disobedience is lawlessness (iii: 4). A child 
of God cannot be habitually disobedient to the Master's 
will. He cannot be lawless. We come to know that 
we do know Him when we habitually seek to keep His 
commandments. "Keep" is a favorite word with the 
apostle. More than a score of times he employs it 
touching the Lord's word and will. To keep is to 
guard and reguard, to observe and obey with stead- 
fastness and zeal. Thus "we do know that we know 
him." Our consciousness attests it; in the central 
deeps of our being we know certain things; we can- 
not be argued, nor ridiculed, nor frightened out of 
our knowledge: "We know that we know him;" we 
have personal acquaintance with Him as our Deliverer 
and Friend, and we reach this sure knowledge by lov- 
and keeping His commandments. 

What is implied in such obedience? First, a filial 
spirit. No formalist, no legalist, no self-righteous per- 
son can by any possibility love and obey the command- 
ments of the Lord Jesus. A child of God alone can 
do so, and every child does it in greater or less de- 
gree; he must, it is the essence of his new nature. It 



FIRST EPISTLE OF JOFIN. 



99 



Implies faith. And this is his commandment, "That 
we believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ" (iii: 
23). "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ 
is born of God" (v: 1). It implies love. "For this 
is the love of God, that we keep his commandments : 
and his commandments are not grievous" (v: 2, 3). 
We know His love when we cherish His words (John 
xiv: 21 ; xv: 10, 12). These three principles, the filial 
spirit, faith, and love, distinguish Christians. They 
are not found in the ungodly, nor can they be simu- 
lated, counterfeited, or put on like a dress; they are 
of the heart and soul. By them we know that we 
know Him. Every one who loves His will, is respon- 
sive to His voice, and sensitive to His commands, may 
press the glad truth to his heart that he is saved. 

(b) Love to God: "Whoso keepeth his word, in 
him verily is the love of God perfected; hereby we 
know that we are in him" (ii: 5). "If a man love me, 
he will keep my words : and my Father will love him, 
and we will come unto him, and make our abode with 
him" (John xiv: 23). "His word" is more compre- 
hensive than "his commandments ;" it embraces all He 
has revealed in the Scriptures ; it is the sum total of all 
He has been pleased to communicate to us. Our 
Lord kept the Father's word perfectly in all its parts, 
and in Him indeed was the Father's love perfected. 
Let any Christian perfectly keep it and his love to 
God will likewise be perfect. But in the degree that 
we love and obey Him we have the assurance that His 
love is in us and abides. Such love fellowship with 
Him requires. 



100 FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 



(c) Abiding in Him: "He that saith he abideth in 
him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked" 
(ii: 6). Abiding in Christ is another requirement of 
fellowship. Abiding in Him is somewhat additional 
to being in Him. It is possible to be in Him and yet 
not consciously to abide in 'Him. The one state differs 
from the other not in kind but in degree. Abiding in 
Him expresses the idea of continuing in Him, being 
actively alive to our nearness and the blessedness of 
our relations with Him. He who keeps up close and 
unbroken union with Christ is the most useful Chris- 
tian. "He that abideth in me and I in him, the same 
bringeth forth much fruit" (John xv: 5). He that 
abides in Him has answers to his prayers. "If ye 
abide in me and my words abide in you ye shall ask 
what ye will, and it shall be done unto you" (John 
xv : 7). There is a suggestive balance of terms in 
the verses we have been considering. This diagram 
may serve to show the balance: 

Fellowship= Knowing God; 
Knowing God= Loving Him; 
Loving Him=Being in Him; 
Being in Him=Abiding in Him. 

The parallel presents a well-defined example of 
biblical climax. If any one step in the parallel is ab- 
sent, fellowship is not perfect, it is marred, perhaps 
suspended altogether. For fellowship with God rests 
on union with Christ and abiding in Him. This gra- 
cious relation secures obedience, love and walk. The 
same general doctrine is found in John xv : 1-18. 



FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 



(d) Loving the Brotherhood: "He that loveth his 
brother abideth in the light, and there is no occasion 
of stumbling in him" (ii: 10). Love is an essential 
principle in fellowship; love to God, to men, to the 
household of faith particularly. The principle is both 
old and new; old as Moses (Lev. xix: 18; Deut. vi: 
5) : new, because taught and exemplified by the 
Saviour. Love marks the difference between a be- 
liever and an unbeliever: the one is in the light, the 
other in darkness; the one is a light-center, the other 
a stumbling-block. A lamppost lighted is a welcome 
help; without a light, a menace. 

(e) Separation from the world: "Love not the 
world, neither the things that are in the world. If 
any man love the world the love of the Father is not 
in him" (ii: 15-17). By the world John means the 
whole order of things which is estranged from God, 
which is hostile to Him and to His cause and His 
people. The world is God's enemy (Jas. iv: 4), and it 
is soon to pass away under His righteous judgment. 
The world consists of three things that are hateful to 
God: 

"Lust of the flesh"— the strong, passionate craving 
of the unrenewed heart for things evil and forbidden; 
inordinate yearning for the gratification of one's own 
desires, the accomplishment of one's own plans and 
purpose, right or wrong: "Lust of the eyes" — the 
fierce passion to see and enjoy the things the flesh 
longs for, that restless, insatiable delight in what 
pleases the flesh, what pampers and satisfies it, for 
what feeds the basest appetites of our nature. The 



FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 



lust of the flesh is fed by the lust of the eyes. These 
two "lusts" are acquisitive, they seize and hold all that 
the sinful nature craves. But there is a third: "the 
Pride of Life." The lust of the flesh and the lust of 
the eyes are at bottom selfish and lawless. "Pride of 
life" is the same spirit of utter selfishness expending 
itself in vain show and pomp. It will lavishly squan- 
der wealth in proud, ostentatious display. It will in- 
trigue and fawn if thereby it may win the notice of the 
illutrious and the great, and strut with haughty arro- 
gance among its equals and inferiors. The first two 
are egoism of the meanest sort; the third is egotism 
pretentious and shallow to the last degree. All be- 
long to a life that is false, hollow and bitterly disap- 
pointing. A Christian is bidden stand aloof from this 
"world." He must heed these solemn words of John, 
the still more solemn words of James : "Know ye not 
that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? 
Whosoever therefore would be the friend of the world 
maketh himself an enemy of God." A holy separa- 
tion from this zuorld must be maintained if fellowship 
with God is to be real and permanent. 

(f) Anointing of the Spirit, ii: 20, 27. The anoint- 
ing which believers receive is the Spirit Himself and 
not a gift or gifts from Him. It is affirmed that they 
w T ho have this sacred chrism "know all things," that 
it teaches them so that they may be independent of 
mere human teachers, that by it they are able to de- 
tect false teaching. By this is not meant that any new 
faculty or organ of the soul is imparted so that be- 
lievers may know universal truth; not this; rather, 



FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 



103 



it denotes divine truth as distinguished from error 
which breaks fellowship and tends to stifle it alto- 
gether. We may grieve the Spirit so as to hinder His 
work in us and thus interrupt our fellowship with 
God (Eph. iv: 30). 

(g) Abiding in Christ, ii: 28: "And now, little 
children, abide in him." This with the next verse con- 
cludes the second main division of the epistle, and the 
last thing the apostle has to say to the children is, 
Abide in Christ. He has repeatedly urged them to do 
this ; he does so again because Christ ere long is com- 
ing to the earth, and our relation to Him and our re- 
ward likewise will then be gloriously manifested. 
John is anxious that we should maintain uninterrupted 
fellowship that he and his fellow-workers should not 
be ashamed in His presence as unfaithful shepherds, 
as slothful servants. 

God is Love. 

III. Sonship, iii-v: 12. This section of the epistle 
may be entitled, The Children of God and the Chil- 
dren of the Devil contrasted. The antithesis in Sec- 
tion II is Light and Darkness. The antithesis in Sec- 
tion III is a double one: Righteousness and Sin; or, 
Love and Hate. 

Chap, ii : 29 is the connecting link between the two 
sections: "If ye know that he is righteous, ye know 
that every one that doeth righteousness is born of 
him/' Here is evidence both of sonship and of fel- 
lowship. He whose daily life is one of obedience and 



FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 



uprightness gives proof that he is born of God. The 
like nature is demonstrated by the like fruits. Note 
the use of the present tense, "doeth;" it is character- 
istic of First John. It denotes a habit of life, the pre- 
vailing principle of one's life, not a single act, but a 
succession of acts which make up the life. The apostle 
sharply contrasts "doing righteousness" and "doing 
sin" (iii: 7, 8, 9). The fundamental idea is the same 
in both expressions, viz. : that it is not one act alone 
that is meant, but habitual practice, the life-conduct 
of a man. 

We may now add other items to the parallelism of 
the epistle: 

Being in Him=Abiding in Him; 
Abiding in Him=Anointed of Him; 
Anointed of Him=Born of Him; 
Born of Him=Doing Righteousness. 

I. The origin and the destiny of God's children, 
iii: 1-3. On this great passage only brief notes can 
be made, not an exposition. The authorized version 
has "sons of God;" the English and American revis- 
ions alike have "children;" and beyond question this 
is preferable. Paul generally speaks of the "sons," 
and of "adoption," for he has in mind the legal stand- 
ing and the privileges of Christians. John scarcely 
ever uses the term sons, but always children. (Rev. 
xxi : 7 is perhaps an exception.) And this name which 
he gives them includes two ideas, their birth into the 
heavenly family, and the filial spirit by which they 
arc animated. John does not dwell on the adoption of 



FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 105 



sons into God's household — this is Paul's theme — but 
on their birth. His words {tekna, teknia) "little 
children" is exactly expressed by the Scotch bairns, 
born ones. According to Paul we receive the place 
and the rights of children in God's family; according 
to John, the nature and the name of children. The 
revisions add the precious and assuring words, "and 
we are." We are not only called the children of God, 
but we are. 

The origin of our sonship is here traced to the 
Father's love: "Behold what manner of love the 
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be 
called children of God: and such we are." It is not 
so much the magnitude of the Father's love that is 
here extolled; it is its quality, its character. That He 
should love us, exiles and outcasts, ragged and starv- 
ing prodigals as we are, and that He should bring us 
into His holy family as children, and give us not the 
name only, but also the nature and the character of 
children ! What a wonder of love this is, "all love sur- 
passing." And yet this is what He has done for every 
one who receives and believes His testimony about 
His Son Jesus Christ. "Beloved, now are we the chil- 
dren of God." Children we who trust in Christ are 
called, and children we are. No doubt is felt or ex- 
pressed. The epistle is full of assurances. "For this 
cause the world knoweth us not because it knew him 
not." Natural men knew not Jesus Christ when He 
was here ; no more do they know His children. Really 
to know a child of God is to be a child of God. I 
know a man because I have a man's nature; a brute 



106 FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 



cannot know me, for it has not my nature. If one 
knows not God in Christ, how can he know them who 
belong to God's family? "Beloved, now are we chil- 
dren of God." We do not much look like it as to 
outward appearance. The resemblance between what 
we now are and what we shall be can hardly be traced. 
We are pilgrims traveling in disguise at present, 
weary often and travel-stained, but by and by the dis- 
guise shall drop off, and we shall appear in His like- 
ness, clothed with robes of unsullied light and beauty, 
for "we shall be like him and see him as he is." 
That will be the glorious day of His espousals and of 
our crowning. The hope of seeing Him and of being 
like Him prompts to holiness of life and sanctity of 
spirit. Therefore it is added, "And every one that hath 
this hope set on him purifieth himself, even as he is 
pure." 

2. iii : 4-24. These verses furnish two main proofs 
of Sonship; rather, they point out the two main fea- 
tures in Sonship, viz. : righteousness and love. 

(1) Righteousness is evidence of Sonship (iii: 
4-10). Negatively, doing sin is doing lawlessness, for 
sin is lawlessness (ver. 4). Doing, as already noted, 
means practice, habit, persistent conduct. Whoever 
thus sins, lives in sin, habitually practices sin, has 
neither seen Christ nor known Him. Positively, "he 
that doeth righteousness is righteous." That is, one 
who loves righteousness, who lives in that sphere, and 
who makes righteousness the chief end of his being, 
is of God and belongs to His household. Opposition 
to sin is the controlling principle of one born of God. 



FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 



Love of sin and the persistent doing of sin is the con- 
trolling principle of one belonging to the devil, who is 
the habitual sinner from the beginning. 

The child of God does not live in the practice of 
sin, he lives in the practice of righteousness. Sin is 
in him, but he does not live in it ; holiness is the realm 
where he seeks to dwell. John's doctrine on this mat- 
ter is summed up in iii: 9. It is a difficult verse, but 
its main idea is clear : "Whosoever is begotten of God 
doeth no sin, because his seed abideth in him : and he 
cannot sin because he is begotten of God" (R. V.). 
Sinless perfection certainly is not meant, for that 
would contradict i : 8: "If we say that we have no 
sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." 
Some hold that it is the new nature or life in the child 
of God that does not sin and that cannot sin; but that 
the old nature which is still in the saint does sin. But 
this view involves a sort of double consciousness and 
a divided responsibility, which contradicts our experi- 
ence. It is our whole self that seeks to do righteous- 
ness, and it is our whole self that sins ; otherwise, re- 
sponsibility for evil conduct would largely disappear, 
and the worst type of antinomianism would ensue. 
The meaning of the verse appears to be chiefly this: 
he who is begotten of God does not love sin nor live in 
the practice of it; he hates it, and abhors himself 
when he commits it; he devoutly seeks total deliver- 
ance from it. He that is not born of God loves sin 
and is its slave. The Seed that abides in him probably 
is the new, the divine nature which he receives in re- 
generation, and which is not extirpated when even 



108 FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 



gross sin is committed. "He cannot sin" signifies that 
it is impossible a believer should live in evil and make 
it the habit of his life. He cannot live in it, it is 
foreign to his new nature. 

3. Love is evidence of Sonship, iii: 11-24. Love is 
the keyword of this portion of the chapter and much 
that follows. It runs through the rest of the epistle. 
It occurs 16 times as a substantive, 25 times as a verb, 
and 5 times as a verbal adjective. No wonder John 
makes so much of it when he opens the chapter with 
the note of supreme admiration and wonderment at 
the display of the Father's love. Behold! He names 
us children, and loves us as such. 

Brotherly love is the chief content of the Gospel 
message: "Love one another." Jerome relates that 
when John was too old and feeble to preach he had 
one little exhortation which he did not cease to re- 
peat when carried into the assembly, "Little children, 
love one another. It is the Lord's command, and it 
is enough." 

Hate is love's opposite and its enemy; it is Cain- 
like and murderous. Hate, malignity is foreign to the 
real Christian spirit. Hatred is deadly. Love is the 
infallible mark of spiritual life. "We know that we 
have passed out of death into life because we love the 
brethren." Life is not the cause of love but its fruit. 
If we have the fruit we may be sure we have the life. 

Love gladly goes out in helpfulness of others. It 
is practical, generous and self-sacrificing. If not, it 
is not real. If we say we love God and yet refuse or 
neglect to help those who are destitute, how dwells 



FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 



the love of God in us? (cf. James ii: 15, 16). The 
man who withholds aid from the needy may with his 
tongue say he loves God, but with his hand and his 
heart he denies it. 

iii : 24 introduces for the first time in the epistle the 
Holy Spirit, and we come to know our sonship by the 
gift of the Spirit who bears witness with our spirits 
that we are the children of God. 

4. Spiritual Discernment an evidence of Sonship, 
iv: 1-6. This passage treats of false spirits and of 
their detection and repulsion. 

The right to judge teachers and to test doctrine be- 
longs to all Christians. Our Lord Himself imposed 
this duty on His people (Matt, vii: 15-19). The 
necessity of such trial is recognized : "Beloved, believe 
not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are 
of God ; because many false prophets are gone out into 
the world." Christ foretold their advent (Matt, xxiv: 
24). Paul encountered not a few of them. The 
world is filled with them at the present time. Some 
of them teach partial truth, that which is palatable, 
while that which is distasteful and repugnant to the 
natural heart is suppressed. Others teach error and 
nothing else. In our day as not for ages past Satan 
transforms himself into an angel of light, and de- 
ceives even the most wary and the cautious. Never 
perhaps has there been more need of trying the spirits 
than now. 

The apostle furnishes two infallible tests of both 
teachers and teaching (vers. 2-6). The first relates 
to Christ's person and work. What do they say of 



HO FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 



Him? What is their doctrine concerning Him? Do 
they deny His mission ? His Deity ? His Virgin birth ? 
His resurrection? If they do, then they are of the 
spirit of Antichrist, they are enemies of the blessed 
Lord Jesus, and therefore no believer in Him can hold 
fellowship with them. This is an infallible test in- 
deed, for every false prophet, every heretical teacher 
invariably bears false witness against the Son of God. 

The second is their following: "They are of the 
world; the world heareth them." God's children are 
not of this company nor can be. "A stranger will they 
not follow, but will flee from him ; for they know not 
the voice of strangers." Whoever is born of God knows 
the voice of the Son of God that speaks to him 
through the ministry of the Gospel. That voice he 
hears and heeds. "He that is not of God heareth not 
us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit 
of error." These are sure tests both of profession and 
of character. 

5. Love the supreme evidence of the new birth, 
iv: 7-21. This is the third time the apostle adduces 
love as the prime attestation of sonship and fellow- 
ship. The first mention (ii: 7-1 1) marks the govern- 
ing principle of Christian behavior. The second (iii: 
1 1-24) presents the proofs of sonship in God's family. 
The third (iv: 7-21) explains the origin, the energy 
and the steadfast confidence of this divine force. Its 
source is God Himself, "for God is love." This grace 
so highly commended by John is not of earth; it 
springs not from any merely human fountain, it is not 
native to the human heart. "We love him because he 



FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. m 

first loved us." The parentage of our love to God is 
His love to us. He loves us into loving Himself and 
our fellowmen. "Herein is love, not that we loved 
God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the 
propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved 
us, we ought also to love one another." 

Love is the faculty by which we know Him. It 
leads into an acquaintance with Him, for it has eyes 
that see, ears that hear, a heart that feels and that 
answers to His love. The natural man is both blind 
and deaf as to the love of God ; he knows nothing of 
it, it is foolishness to him. To the Lord's child it is a 
precious reality. Love casts out fear, and fills us with 
a blissful confidence (iv: 16-18). For the Lord Jesus 
and believers belong to the same family, have the same 
tender Father, and are heirs to the same glorious heri- 
tage. Therefore, they have no ground to dread even 
the awful Day of Judgment; for the children have the 
same standing with God as has the Elder Brother 
Himself. 

Can this love of God be defined? Not wholly. 
Some things touching it, however, may be said. God's 
love, in general, is that mighty principle which leads 
Him to desire and seek the good of all His moral 
creatures ; to impart benefits to them in every scale and 
degree of blessing; to recover and restore them when 
they have turned aside from their true end, and lost 
themselves through sin ; to admit them to participation 
in His own holy, blessed life, in which He and they 
become one, as the Father and Son are one (Orr). 
Love alone explains God's marvellous dealings with 



112 FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 



our rebellious race. When we remember the world's 
treatment of Him, its rejection of His authority, its 
idolatries, its profanities, its calumnies and its slan- 
ders against Him, we are amazed at His patience with 
it, His long-suffering. "The forbearance of God" — 
how wonderful it is! The secret of it is His love. 
"God is love:" not only loving, but love. We know 
He is righteous, but we are nowhere told He is righ- 
teousness. We know He is almighty, but we nowhere 
read God is power. Twice we are told, "God is love." 
It is His nature. This is the key to His gracious ways 
with the disobedient children of men. It should be 
noted also that Christian love is not a mere feeling, 
nor mood, nor sentiment, nor impulse. It is a vital 
principle which controls the whole life, which trans- 
forms one's habits, guides one's ways, shapes one's 
whole course, and leads one to rejoice in hope of the 
coming glory. 

6. Faith the evidence of sonship, v: 1-12. "Whoso- 
ever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God" 
(cf. iv: 4). It is a faith that is obedient to the Lord's 
commands, and is victorious over the world (vers. 
2-5). Love is a master-principle, is an all-conquering 
principle. It is one that is assured that Jesus is the 
Messiah, the promised Deliverer; that is just as sure 
that He is also the Son of God. In the one case it re- 
ceives the testimony that He fills the Messianic offices 
of Prophet, Priest and King. In the other it holds 
Him to be God manifest in the flesh, Himself the true 
God. The ground of this faith is the threefold testi- 
mony of the Spirit, the water, and the blood (v: 8). 



FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 



113 



The Holy Spirit is the supreme witness. "The water" 
probably signifies His baptism at the Jordan when the 
Father bare His emphatic testimony that He was well 
pleased in Him. "The blood" no doubt is that of the 
cross. He is thus declared to be both Messiah and 
Son of God on whom faith may confidently rest. 

Prayer and the Certainty of Christian 
Knowledge. 

IV. Conclusion, v: 13-21. 

Intercessory prayer is most precious, but it is dis- 
criminative (v: 16). For one at least no prayer is to 
be offered, for one who has sinned "the sin unto death." 
To determine with any positiveness what the "sin unto 
death" is, is most difficult, if not impossible. It is not 
an ordinary transgression into which professing Chris- 
tians may fall, and often do; it must be one that is 
extraordinary, heinous and mortal in the deepest sense. 
It seems to be a single act that cuts the sinner off from 
all intercession. Some regard it as identical with the 
sin against the Holy Spirit, the "unpardonable sin." 
Others think it is not this, but something akin to it, 
a sin that is peculiar and fatal. "Death," the punish- 
ment of it, appears to be eternal death. If it were 
physical death, as many believe, the passage would be 
readily understood, and instances of such transgres- 
sion ending in the death of the transgressors are found 
in Scripture, e. g., 1 Cor. v : 1 ; xi : 30 ; I Tim. i : 20. 
No doubt there are even now cases of fatal sickness 
brought on by sins for which no prayer is available 
8 



114 FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 



as respects recovery. But it is doubtful whether physi- 
cal death is meant. "Life" all through the epistle 
means eternal life; death, likewise, seems to mean in 
each case eternal death. 

Design of First John, Chap, v: 13. "These things 
have I written unto you, that ye may know that ye have 
eternal life, even unto you that believe on the name of 
the Son of God" (R. V.). 

"These things" embraces the whole epistle. The 
verse states the object of this epistle, namely, that 
Christians may know they have eternal life. He 
writes the Gospel that "ye may believe that Jesus is 
the Christ, the Son of God ; and that believing ye may 
have life in his name" (John xx: 31). He writes the 
epistle "that ye may know ye have eternal life." The 
Gospel is designed to put us in possession of eternal 
life : the epistle is intended to lead us to know we have 
it. The one aims to bring us to a saving faith; the 
other to make us know our faith is saving. To have 
a thing and to know we have it are not always the 
same. We may have a thing and yet be in doubt 
whether we possess it. One's name may be in a will 
as heir to a great inheritance, and he be ignorant of 
the fact. We may think we have eternal life, yet de- 
ceive ourselves, cherishing feeling for faith, mistaking 
a wish for ownership. Many sincere Christians go 
through life with little or no assurance that they are 
saved. There are those who think it is even a kind of 
virtue to doubt, who look on the full assurance of sal- 
vation as a sort of presumption which genuine hu- 
mility forbids one to claim. Now this epistle fur- 



FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 



115 



nishes us with infallible evidences of our state before 
God. It provides marks and traits whereby the be- 
liever may know assuredly that he is passed from 
death into life, is now named and anointed for eternal 
bliss. We note some of these tokens and sings of the 
saved condition which John so plentifully gives us in 
this Scripture. 

1. Believing on the name of the Son of God, v: 13 
(cf. John i: 12; 1 John iii : 23; v: 1). His name 
stands for Himself, for ail He is and for all He prom- 
ises. His great title, Son of God, at once pledges to 
the believer His grace and love and power to do for 
him up to the full measure of his need. Faith lays 
hold on His pledges and comforts itself with the 
assurance that it will all be made good to him even 
as the Lord has said. There is an element in saving 
faith of persuasion that salvation is guaranteed to the 
believer. Here is the testimony of one of the evan- 
gelical churches on the subject that is worthy of all 
acceptation : "True and saving faith ... is a cordial 
reception and appropriation of him (Christ) by the 
sinner as his Saviour, with an accompanying persua- 
sion or assurance corresponding to the degree or 
strength of his faith, that he shall be saved by him." 
Heb. xi: 1 confirms this testimony: "Now faith is 
assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things 
not seen" (R. V.). Whoever savingly believes on the 
name of the Son of God has this witness in his per- 
sonal consciousness. "God hath given us eternal life, 
and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath 
life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." 



Ii6 FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 

The apostle gives us many marks whereby we may 
know that we are children of God. These have been 
already noticed in this study. There are mentioned 
again as distinct marks of the saved state — 

2. Walking in the light is proof of our state, i: 7. 
He who walks with God must love the company of 
the godly; he cannot habitually dwell with them who 
are the Lord's foes. In what society do we delight? 
Our tastes, desires, affections — what sort of company 
attracts and holds them? When Peter and John were 
released from arrest "they went to their own com- 
pany." They could go to no other. They must seek 
their own kind. This is characteristic of all the saints; 
they love His family; they do not the family of the 
ungodly. In our deepest and truest selves, where do 
we live ? 

3. Confession of sin and pardon, i: 8-10. What is 
our attitude toward sin? Do we dread it? confess it? 
forsake it? and seek after holiness? If so, we have 
that much of evidence that we belong to God. 

4. Obedience is a signal mark of Sonship, ii: 3. 
"Hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep 
his commandments." An obedient child in a house- 
hold knows that he has the love of his father and his 
mother when he gladly and habitually obeys. A dis- 
obedient son is always in fear; genuine fellowship 
with his parents he does not have nor can so long as 
he seeks his own will and walks in his own ways. It 
is an infallible sign this of obedience. 

5. Separation from the world is another proof of 
our Sonship, ii: 15-17. It is a marvellous, great 



FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 



117 



world we live in, and it has stupendous attractions. 
Its riches, its splendors, its pleasures, its refinements 
and its gratifications — how do these and the like affect 
us ? Do we love it or turn from it ? 

6. The hope of seeing Christ and being like Him 
is another token of Sonship, iii: 1-4. Whoever waits 
and longs for Christ's coming, whoever yearns to see 
Him and to be like Flim, whoever lives soberly and 
righteously and godly in this evil world, looking for 
that Blessed Hope, has the proof in himself that he is 
a child of God. 

7. A life of righteousness is another evidence of 
Sonship, iii: 7-10. Whoever does righteousness as a 
habit of his soul, whoever loves righteousness and 
makes it the aim and the effort of his whole self, may 
take comfort in the assurance that he is born of God, 
for he that "doeth righteousness is born of him." 

8. Love of the brethren is still another proof of 
Sonship, iii: 14. "We know that we have passed out 
of death into life, because we love the brethren." 
Brotherly love is the supreme test of our standing be- 
fore God. 

9. Faith is yet another evidence of Sonship, v : 4, 5. 
It is a victorious faith, for it overcomes the world ; it 
is a faith that receives Jesus as the Christ and as the 
Son of God, Deliverer and Divine, and therefore able 
to redeem us from all iniquity and from all enemies, 
even death itself. 

10. Certainty of Christian knowledge, v: 18-20. In 
this passage the term know occurs four times. It is 
found three times in verses 13-15; seven times in this 



Il8 FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 



short section of the epistle; and more than a score of 
times in the letter. The apostle attaches great value to 
the word ; it is the hinge on which turns the certainty 
of our salvation. It expresses the utmost assurance. 
"O taste and see that the Lord is gracious," sang the 
Psalmist long ago. "Try for yourselves and you will 
know, you cannot help but know. ,, So John seems to 
say to his readers. 

V: 18, "We know that whosoever is born of God 
sinneth not." We know it from the Lord's own testi- 
mony, iii : 9. Does this mean that the Christian never 
sins? Certainly not, for "if we say that we have no 
sin we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." 
He who is born of God does not practice sin, does not 
live in sin, he cannot. The new life he has received 
is holy and seeks holiness; the grace given him for- 
bids his sinning. When he falls into sin he confesses 
the wrongdoing, repents of it, turns away from it, 
and seeks the Lord's pardon and is fully forgiven. 
The knowledge of this comforting truth rests on 
Christ's word, and on the believer's personal experi- 
ence. 

V : 19, "We know that we are of God." We know 
it by all the marks, signs, tokens and proofs so plenti- 
fully furnished in this epistle. Our state and stand- 
ing, therefore, is totally different from that of the 
world, for "the world" lies in the wicked one. The 
figure is that of a child lying in the lap of its parent. 
In v: 18 the evil one toucheth him not who is 
born of God. That is, the devil cannot ever again 
seize hold of and rule him that is a child of God, 



FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 



119 



Here we are told that the unbelieving world lies in his 
embrace, rests in his lap! Nobody believes such a 
radical and frightful statement but a genuine Chris- 
tian. This inspired apostle, however, most solemnly 
affirms it, and believe it we must if we are Christians. 

V : 20, "And we know that the Son of God is come, 
and hath given us an understanding, that we may 
know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, 
even in his Son Jesus Christ." We know it by His 
Spirit, by His promise, and by the enlightened con- 
sciousness within us. "This is the true God and 
eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from 
idols." 



SECOND EPISTLE OF JOHN 



In this brief letter there are several words and 
phrases that are identical with language found in 
John's First Epistle. Indeed, it has been pointed out 
that of the thirteen verses of Second John eight are 
found in First John. This fact goes far to prove that 
the author of the one writing is also the author of the 
other. j 

The writer styles himself "the Elder." The term is 
the same as Presbyter. This title describes age; no 
doubt he was far advanced in life when he wrote, for 
it is generally believed that John lived to be nearly if 
not quite one hundred years old, and he probably died 
about the close of the first Christian century. Toward 
the end of the century the epistle was written. It de- 
scribes also a fatherly relation between him and those 
whom he so tenderly addresses, and his official posi- 
tion. He was "the Elder," as was Peter likewise 
(i Peter v: i). Hence John speaks both with paternal 
affection and apostolic authority. 

The epistle is addressed "unto the elect lady and 
her children,'* which does not mean the whole church, 
nor any single congregation of Christians, but an in- 
dividual woman in whose family were children. Who 
she was can not be determined with any certainty. It 
has been conjectured that her name was Electa, but 

1 20 



SECOND EPISTLE OF JOHN. 



121 



the use of the same word in ver. 13 seems to forbid it. 
"The elect sister" of that verse cannot be a proper 
name. With more probability it is thought that the 
term for "lady" is to be understood as a proper name, 
and that we should translate as follows : "To the elect 
Kyria." Kyria was in use as the name of a woman 
in those ancient times, and there is no impropriety in so 
understanding it here. At any rate, she was a person 
of note and of influence. She was training her house- 
hold in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and 
the aged apostle attests her faithfulness and her suc- 
cess; he found her children walking in the truth, and 
it rejoiced his heart. 

He writes, (1) to exhort the Lady (Kyria) to 
steadfastness in love and obedience (vers. 5, 6). The 
phrase "love one another" is characteristic of John 
(1 John iii: 11), as is also love to God (1 John iv: 
21). This is no new commandment, but one had from 
the beginning. He defines more exactly what he means 
by love — "And this is love, that we should walk after 
his commandments." Walk denotes the daily life. It 
includes the temper of mind and the external deport- 
ment which go to make up character. The Christian 
walk is to be the constant exercise of love, obedience, 
steadfastness and patience. 

He writes (2), to warn her against false teachers 
and false doctrine (vers. 7, 8). Many deceivers were 
abroad, men who rejected the blessed hope of the 
Lord's coming in visible glory and power. In 1 John 
iv: 3 the apostle brands every "spirit" that rejects the 
great truth of the incarnation ("Jesus Christ is come 



122 



SECOND EPISTLE OF JOHN. 



in the flesh") as Antichrist. Here in 2 John the 
solemn charge is that whoever does "not confess that 
Christ cometh in the flesh is a deceiver and an anti- 
christ." The great adversary, Antichrist, when he 
shall appear, will be both — a false Christ, a mock Mes- 
siah — but also a malignant and determined foe of 
Christ. He who denies the coming of the Lord is a 
deceiver of himself and of the people who heed his 
teaching, but he is likewise a foe of Christ and him- 
self a false Christ. 

The false teachers are further described in ver. 9: 
"Whosoever goeth onward and abideth not in the 
teaching of Christ, hath not God." They are those 
who forsake the old paths, who go beyond what the 
Lord has taught, who give up much of the Gospel, or 
who declare that it is no longer adapted to "the 
modern man." They are the advanced thinkers, the 
inventors of novelties, the patrons of the spirits of 
the age. There is a vast crop of them on earth now. 

(3) Warning against a false charity, vers. 10, 1 1. 
Some might be disposed to say, "Well, if love is so 
noble and ennobling, let us love all and fellowship all 
without distinction or discrimination." No, John re- 
plies; you cannot afford to fellowship those who pro- 
pagate error that is destructive, for if you do you 
thereby become sharers in their evil works. Separa- 
tion from the ungodly and repudiation of all teachers 
of bad doctrine is John's earnest counsel. 



THIRD EPISTLE OF JOHN 

This letter is addressed to the "well-beloved Gaius," 
one of the most common names in the Roman Empire 
in those ancient days. Four with this name of Gaius 
are mentioned in the New Testament — Gaius of Mace- 
donia (Acts xix: 29) ; Gaius of Corinth, with whom 
Paul was lodging when he wrote the epistle to the 
Romans (Rom. xvi: 23); Gaius of Derbe (Acts xx: 
4) ; and this Gaius whom it so highly commends. 
Whether he was the same as any one of the three 
mentioned above is unknown. The following matters 
in the epistle are worthy of careful study : 

(1) The joy of apostles and ministers over the 
fidelity and the steadfastness of their converts in walk- 
ing in the truth (vers. 2-4). It hurts, it wounds us 
deeply when those whom we have tried to lead into 
the saving acquaintance with Christ go back and walk 
no more with us. 

(2) Hospitality praised (vers. 5-8). Gaius had 
shown his love and generosity in the entertainment 
which he extended to those who were laboring in the 
cause of missions and in the noble help he gave them. 
The missionaries were thoroughly unselfish and self- 
sacrificing in their good work — "For the sake of the 
Name they went forth, taking nothing of the Gen- 
tiles." All the greater, therefore, was the need that 
Christian brethren should support them, Gaius was 

123 



THIRD EPISTLE OF JOHN. 



one of the most conspicuous of those who did so. It 
was a "faithful work toward them that are brethren 
and strangers withal" which he did, and it was 
prompted solely by love. The aged John commends 
him in the highest terms and sets the seal of divine 
approval on his loving hospitality. 

(3) Denunciation of hierarchical arrogance and 
ecclesiastical despotism (vers. 9, 10). Diotrephes 
acted in a very different spirit. He loved pre-emi- 
nence in the church, grasped after authority, set him- 
self against the apostle himself and treated him with 
insolence and indignity, refused to receive the mis- 
sionaries, and prohibited others from doing so. His 
conduct is denounced, his behavior held up as a warn- 
ing to all, and John deals with him according to his 
deserts. How hateful to the inspired writers is eccle- 
siastical tyranny, the arrogant claim of lordship over 
God's heritage! 

(4) A good man cordially commended (vers. 11, 
12). "Demetrius hath good report of all, and of the 
truth itself." The witness borne to his goodness was 
that of his fellow-Christians. "He that doeth good is 
of God." Demetrius belongs to this select class. "He 
that doeth evil hath not seen God." Diothephes must 
be put into this unhappy class. "Imitate not that 
which is evil," Diotrephes and his company, "but that 
which is good," Demetrius and his fellow-saints. 

These two short epistles give us some insight into 
the membership and conditions of the primitive 
church. Christians then had their weaknesses and 
their imperfections even as we; they had also those 



THIRD EPISTLE OF JOHN. 



125 



who were noble and true, but likewise some ignoble 
and unworthy members. Some were generous and 
self-sacrificing in the highest degree, others were am- 
bitious and self-seeking. But brotherly love was the 
prevailing feature among the majority. It is note- 
worthy that individual Christians are singled out and 
commended or condemned, for ecclesiasticism had not 
then hardened into an organism in which the individual 
was swallowed up, the huge body being everything. 



EPISTLE OF JUDE 

The writer of this short epistle calls himself Jude, 
or Judas. His name was a very common one among 
the Jews : there was hardly another of more frequent 
use. Two among the apostles bore it, viz: Judas, 
mentioned in John xiv : 22 ; cf . Luke vi : 16, and Judas 
Iscariot. Jude describes himself as "the servant of 
Jesus Christ, and brother of James." The James here 
mentioned is no doubt the same called "the Lord's 
brother" (Gal. i: 19), the writer of the epistle which 
bears his name. Neither was an apostle. Both be- 
longed to the family of Joseph, and both are called 
the Lord's brethren. In Mark vi: 3 the sons in 
Joseph's family are James, Joses, Judas and Simon. 
Sisters there were also, but they are not named nor 
their number given. The appellation "servant of 
Jesus Christ," Alford affirms, "is never thus barely 
used in an address of an epistle to designate an apos- 
tle." Phil, i: 1 has a similar expression, "Paul and 
Timothy, servants of Jesus Christ," "but the designa- 
tion common to two persons necessarily sinks to the 
rank of the inferior one. In every other case servant 
is associated with apostle." It is noteworthy that 
neither James nor Jude hint at their relationship with 
Jesus ; their unaffected humility will not suffer them to 
do so. Jude speaks of his being the "brother of 
James" perhaps to give authority and weight to his 

126 



EPISTLE OF JUDE. 



127 



letter, for James was far more distinguished and in- 
fluential than he. 

Both Jude and James pertained to the family of 
David. An early historian, Hegesippus (c. A. D. 175- 
190), records that two of Jude's grandsons were 
brought before the Roman Emperor Domitian toward 
the close of the first century and were questioned by 
him as to their connection with the house of David. 
They told the Emperor that they were of David's 
family, which obviously identifies the household of 
Joseph and Mary with the royal house of Israel's 
greatest king. Domitian asked them about their 
wealth. They said they had some money — 9,000 de- 
naries, some $1,500 — they had also 39 acres of land 
which they tilled themselves, and as proof of their toil 
they showed the august ruler their rough and hardened 
hands. The Roman asked them about Christ and His 
Kingdom, of what nature it would be and when it 
would appear, and the two men replied that it would 
not be of this world nor earthly, but heavenly and 
angelic, and that it would appear at the end of the 
age, at which time He will come in glory and judge 
the living and the dead, and will give to each one ac- 
cording to his works. The Emperor dismissed them, 
despising them as poor men without influence and 
without power. The two brothers afterward became 
leaders in the church because they had stood before 
the Emperor as witnesses, and because they were of 
the family of the Lord. "This Hegesippus relates" 
(Eusebius). 

This interesting story takes us back into the first 



128 



EPISTLE OF JUDE. 



century, about the year A. D. 90, while the Apostle 
John was still living, and Jude their grandfather had 
passed away perhaps less than twenty-five years be- 
fore. Two facts of great importance are established 
by this narrative: First, that the family of Joseph 
and Mary was identified with the royal house of 
David; no one raised a question touching the reality 
of such relation. Second, that the Kingdom of Jesus 
Christ was in the minds of Christians generally and in 
the minds even of the rulers of the Empire closely 
associated with the throne of David. 

The address of the epistle is remarkable for the 
affection Jude expresses for these saints. He speaks 
of them as "called," "beloved in God the Father," 
"kept for Jesus Christ" (R. V.). He wishes mercy, 
peace and love may be multiplied to them — a prayer 
without a parallel in any other epistle of the New 
Testament. They must have been a worthy band, a 
noble and trustworthy company of believers, to merit 
such an address. 

The design of the epistle is indicated very distinctly 
in ver. 3: "Beloved, while I was giving all diligence 
to write unto you of our common salvation, I was 
constrained to write unto you exhorting you to con- 
tend earnestly for the faith which was once for all 
delivered unto the saints." Jude in these words clearly 
intimates that he had meditated writing at length on 
the common salvation, perhaps an essay or a treatise; 
but the solemn and urgent necessity pressed upon his 
heart that he must warn Christians of the dangers that 
threatened the truth, and to protest against the evils 



EPISTLE OF JUDE. 



129 



and the evildoers that had invaded the brotherhood. 
The faith was in jeopardy, nay, Christianity itself. 
Every loyal soul must bestir himself to the uttermost. 
To falter in the presence of such tremendous perils as 
Jude describes would be cowardly, would be treason 
to Christ. And so Jude urges each believer to con- 
tend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered unto 
the saints. 

Peter vigorously denounces the like evils, but he 
speaks of them as undeveloped, not yet fullgrown, but 
sure to reach a fatal maturity (2 Peter ii, iii). Jude 
represents them as actually present and as doing in- 
calculable injury. Peter sees them as an invading 
army, the advanced guard as already on the ground 
with the main body in sight. Jude speaks of them 
as enemies who are already within the sacred camp 
and doing their ruinous work in all parts of it. 
Peter predicts the advent of these foes of truth in the 
following terms: "Knowing this first, that in the 
last days mockers shall come with mockery, walking 
after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the prom- 
ise of his coming? for from the day that the fathers 
fell asleep all things continue as they were from the 
beginning of the creation" (2 Peter iii: 3, 4). Jude 
appears to quote this prediction and to affirm that it 
has its fulfilment in his day: "But ye, beloved, re- 
member ye the words which have been spoken before 
by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: that they 
said unto you, In the last times there shall be mockers, 
walking after their own ungodly lusts" (vers. 17, 18). 
There is an almost exact parallel between the two 
9 



130 



EPISTLE OF JUDE. 



writers, Peter and Jude, in the two passages. The 
differences between them, slight as they are, may be 
accounted for by Jude's use of the plural apostles, 
thus glancing perhaps at the like words of Paul in 
I Tim. iv: i; 2 Tim. iii: iff. There seems to be in- 
dicated here that the predictions both of Peter and of 
Paul are older than this epistle of Jude, and that Jude 
was acquainted with both and had them in mind when 
he wrote. If this be admitted, the inference is both 
legitimate and conclusive that Second Peter was in 
existence when Jude wrote, and that he received it as 
the word of God, a true prophecy touching the Last 
Times. It must be borne in mind, however, that the 
prophecies of neither Peter nor Jude are to be tied 
up to the times when they lived and wrote, nor are 
their writings to be regarded as dealing exclusively 
with the evils then existent. They do indeed apply to 
prevailing conditions then, but both writings pertain 
to the church in all its history. Whenever like condi- 
tions prevail these two epistles bear their solemn and 
urgent testimony with the same force as they did 
when first written. They belong to the age in which 
we now live; they will find their full accomplishment 
in the Last Days when wickedness will be at the flood. 

Jude begins with the statement that the saints are 
"preserved in Jesus Christ." He ends with their 
presentation as "faultless before the presence of his 
glory with exceeding joy." The two statements dis- 
close the theme of the epistle, viz.: the preservation 
and presentation of the saints. They are "preserved," 
and they shall be "presented without blemish" before 



EPISTLE OF JUDE. 



God's glorious presence. There can be no presenta- 
tion of them in glory unless they are safely guarded 
by God's grace and power. For, as already indicated, 
the epistle contemplates a perilous situation; it deals 
with a time when the professing body is filled with 
men of the loosest morals, of the most flagrant life, 
and when destructive doctrines are taught and the 
wildest errors are disseminated. Against these cor- 
rupters and skeptics Jude writes with a vehemence 
that in the New Testament is without parallel. His 
denunciations are terrific. The character and doom 
he assigns to them are appalling. Matters have come 
to a dreadful pass when the Spirit of God is compelled 
to use such stern and awful language. Let us note 
what he says of them. The character given them is 
as bad and black as it can well be. 



Description of the Apostates. 

I. They are surreptitious foes. "For there are cer- 
tain men crept in unawares — ungodly men" (ver. 4). 
The language points to their stealthy and insidious 
entrance into the Christian Brotherhood. Like a ser- 
pent, like a cunning beast of prey, these ungodly men 
creep into the company of the godly. Peter represents 
them as "false teachers who privily shall bring in 
damnable (destructive) heresies" (2 Peter ii: 1). 
Paul also employs very similar terms as to the false 
teachers among the Galatians — "false brethren un- 
awares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our 
liberty" (Gal. ii: 4). In every case they are men who 



132 



EPISTLE OF JUDE. 



are within the Christian church as enemies who feign 
to be friends, therefore in reality spies and traitors. 

2. They are perverters of grace and deniers of 
Christ — "turning the grace of God into lasciviousness, 
and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus 
Christ" (ver. 4). They are those who by a vile per- 
versity turn the liberty and the grace of the Gospel into 
a means of gratifying their base and unholy passions, 
and who thereby, both in doctrine and life, deny their 
Master and Lord. 

3. They are censorious and arrogant detractors: 
"Dreamers who despise dominion and speak evil of 
dignities" (ver. 8). Destitute of true reverence, they 
rail at the holiest and the best things, and pronounce 
judgment on all authority and all rule. Defiant like 
Pharaoh, they say, "Who is the Lord that I should 
hearken to his voice?" (Ex. v: 2). They have the 
proud tongue of the lawless: "Our lips are our own: 
who is lord over us?" (Psalms xii: 4). 

4. Ignorant calumniators they are, and brutish sen- 
sualists; "But these speak evil of those things which 
they know not : but what they know naturally as brute 
beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves" (ver. 
10). What they do not know nor understand, as 
something lofty and noble, they deride and denounce; 
what they know is that which ministers to their dis- 
ordered appetites and their debased tastes. 

5. They are hypocrites and deceivers, whose lives 
are fruitless, and whose presence among Christians is 
contaminating (vers. 12, 13) : "These are they who 
are hidden rocks in your love- feasts when they feast 



EPISTLE OF JUDE. 



133 



with you, shepherds that without fear feed themselves; 
clouds without water, carried along by winds ; autumn 
trees without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the 
roots; wild waves of the sea, foaming out their own 
shame; wandering stars, for whom the blackness of 
darkness hath been reserved forever" (R. V.). This 
is terrific but most graphic language. The imagery is 
most vivid ; one can see these insincere, depraved pro- 
fessors as if they stood before him in flesh and blood. 
Their character and their wicked behavior are made 
visible; like sunken reefs they wreck the noblest and 
purest lives; like clouds that promise much but for- 
ever disappoint; like trees with withered fruit, leaf- 
less, dead and unprotected; like the raging sea, they 
cast out only their acts of shame; like meteors that 
stray through the sky at random and without law, and 
go out at last into a night that knows no morning — 
such their character and doom. 

6. They are grumblers, faultfinders, pleasure-seek- 
ers, boasters, parasites : "These are murmurers, com- 
plainers, walking after their own lusts; and their 
mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men's 
persons in admiration because of advantage" (ver. 16). 
They find fault with the authority of every sort, hu- 
man and divine; they are dissatisfied with their lot, 
with circumstances, with Providence; they boast that 
they could manage things better themselves; and yet 
they can be servile, sycophantic when thereby advan- 
tage is secured. 

7. They are schismatics and sensualists : "These be 
they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the 
Spirit" (ver. 19). 



*34 



EPISTLE OF JUDE. 



Such is the forbidding portrait which Jude draws of 
the ungodly. But he adds other traits and features 
which must be noted if we are to have a complete con- 
ception of the situation. He furnishes a number of 
examples of apostates and of apostasy which disclose 
even more strikingly the spirit and end of them that 
pervert and corrupt the truth, that deny the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and that mock at the things of God. 
These are marks of a fatal degeneracy, tokens of the 
"falling away" which prepares the way for the rev- 
elation of the man of sin and son of perdition whose 
destruction Christ Himself accomplishes at His com- 
ing (2 Thess. ii). To these seven marks we now turn. 

(1) Unbelief. "I will therefore put you in remem- 
brance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, 
having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, 
afterward destroyed them that believed not" (ver. 5). 
Unbelieving Israel, though redeemed from bondage by 
almighty power, afterward fell beneath the judgment 
of God. By their distrust and disobedience they pro- 
voked the Lord to anger, so that He sware in His 
wrath, They shall not enter into my rest (Heb. iii: 11 ; 
cf. Psalm xcv: 11). Unbelief is deadly. Luther 
said strongly bui not too strongly, "Nothing damns 
but unbelief." Let the saints remember the mournful 
example of faithless Israel, and hold fast their trust 
in the living God. "Take heed, brethren, lest haply 
there shall be in any one of you an evil heart of unbe- 
lief, in falling away from the living God" (Heb. 
iii: 12). 

(2) Pride. "And the angels which kept not their 



EPISTLE OF JUDE. 



135 



first estate (their own principality), but left their own 
habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains un- 
der darkness unto judgment of the great day" (ver. 6). 
The fall of the angels is involved in profound mystery. 
Peter seems to teach that they fell when they were still 
dwelling in heaven: "For if God spared not the 
angels when they sinned, but cast them down to hell, 
and committed them to pits of darkness" — .They were 
cast down because they sinned even in His glorious 
presence (2 Peter ii: 4). Jude alludes to the same 
fact in the expression, "Kept not their first estate, but 
left their own habitation," i. e., they deliberately apos- 
tated from the blessed state and place in which they 
had been placed by creative power. They were once 
innocent, but they sinned against God and were ex- 
pelled from their habitation. Paul teaches that it was 
through pride Satan fell under condemnation (1 Tim. 
iii: 6). Pride, ambition, rebellion, and then expul- 
sion from the lofty habitation — this appears to be the 
brief history of the angelic apostasy. They are now 
felon outcasts with a doom far more terrible awaiting 
them in the future. 

Serious error is sometimes taught concerning the 
fall of the angels. The cause of it, we are told, was 
their sin with women, and Gen. vi: 2, 4 is cited in 
proof — "The sons of God saw the daughters of men 
that they were fair; and they took them wives of all 
which they chose." Jude 7 is supposed to lend support 
to this view: "Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and 
the cities about them, in like manner giving them- 
selves over to fornication, and going after strange 



136 



EPISTLE OF JUDE. 



flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the ven- 
geance of eternal fire." Against this application of the 
two passages in Genesis and Jude very strong and 
conclusive objections may be urged, (a) "Sons of 
God" may mean angels; the expression probably does 
in Job i : 6 ; xxxviii : 7. But in every instance where 
it is thus used it designates good angels, unfallen be- 
ings. Even in Job i: 6 Satan is carefully distin- 
guished from the "sons of God;" he is not identified 
with them, he only appears "among them." Not once 
in all the Bible are Satan and his hosts called "sons of 
God" (cf. 2 Cor. iv : 4; Eph. ii : 2 ; vi : 12 ; Rev. xii : 9; 
xx : 2, etc.). The Devil is always the Devil, and so 
are demons always demons ; they are not named "sons 
of God." If therefore these "sons of God" represent 
unfallen angels, they could not be guilty of such a 
crime as is alleged; if demons are meant by the title, 
they could not possibly be called God's sons, (b) If 
the good angels are meant, they could not marry 
women of our race and have offspring by them, for 
these angels are sexless according to Jesus' teaching: 
"But Jesus answered and said unto them (Sadducees), 
Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power 
of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry 
nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels in 
heaven" (Matt, xxii: 29, 30). Like the angels the 
"sons of the resurrection" are immortal, they are for- 
ever free from the limitations and passions of the 
earthly life, and are like the angels, in that procreation 
and family relationships have forever ended, (c) If 
fallen angels are meant, then we are confronted with 



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this immense difficulty: Demons are spirits; how 
could such beings take women of our race as wives, 
and how could they have offspring by them? It may 
be alleged that they assumed human bodies and so 
could become husbands of the daughters of men. But 
there is no hint in Scripture that they have ever done 
so. In fact, they are never represented as appearing 
in human bodies. Demoniacal possession is a very dif- 
ferent thing; in it there is no assumption of a body at 
all. Demons seek to enter bodies, even those of ani- 
mals (Luke viii : 32), but they never become incarnate. 
Besides, to do this would require a miracle such as 
evil spirits could by no possibility work. God alone 
could effect so mighty a transformation. But is it con- 
ceivable that the Holy One who cannot connive at 
sin would lend His power to effect so vile a deed? 
(d) The children of these unholy alliances are called 
men (Gen. vi: 4). They are likewise called Giants, 
but the Giants in Scripture are kings, rulers, war- 
riors (Num. xiii: 33; Deut. ii: 10, 11, 21 ; iii: 11). If 
they had been the offspring of demons and women, 
they would have been neither the one nor the other, 
but an unnatural grotesque mixture of the two — 
monsters, like the fabled Centaur and Cecrops of 
Greek Mythology, (e) The statement in Jude 6, 7 
does not necessarily require that the sin of the angels 
was the same as that of Sodom, but only that in both 
cases, that of the angels and this of Sodom, there was 
apostasy from God and deserved punishment on ac- 
count of it. (f) "Sons of God" denotes, as a phrase, 
not the angels at all, but the pious Sethites, while the 



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"daughters of men" are the descendants of wicked 
Cain. Alliance between these two distinct bodies, the 
religious and the irreligious, the people of God and the 
people of the world, leads inevitably to degeneracy and 
moral corruption, and ultimately to apostasy. This 
is precisely Jude's theme, the peril against which he 
so urgently warns. God's servants were called in the 
Old Testament times "sons of God" (cf. Hos. i: 10). 

(3) Lust. "Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the 
cities about them, in like manner giving themselves 
over to fornication and going after strange flesh, are 
set forth as an example, suffering the punishment of 
eternal fire" (ver. 7). These two infamous places 
give the name to an infamous crime. So infectious 
and so widespread was the moral taint of Sodom that 
Lot's family, in spite of his righteous testimony 
against it, was smitten with it and his daughters be- 
came the authors of one of the blackest deeds re- 
corded in the Old Testament. 

(4) Vituperation, vers. 8-10. "Likewise also these 
filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and 
speak evil of dignities," etc. Michael the Archangel 
is adduced as a witness against these caluminators. 
In his contention with the devil Michael durst not 
bring a railing accusation against him; he only said, 
The Lord rebuke thee. By reason of his exalted dig- 
nity he might have denounced the slanderer in the 
sternest language. For he is "the archangel," a title 
that denotes the highest angelic rank. Only in one 
other place in the Bible is this great name, archangel, 
found, 1 Thess. iv: 16. It occurs in the singular num- 



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ber, never in the plural, whence the inference is drawn 
that there is but one such angel. In Daniel x: 13 he 
is called "one of the chief princes," and in ver. 21 of 
the same chapter "Michael your prince," as if he 
stood in some intimate and peculiar relation to Israel. 
In Rev. xii : 7-9 he is described as the leader of the 
heavenly host against the Dragon and his army. All 
this indicates the illustrious station he holds. And 
yet, great as Michael is, he durst not bring a railing of 
judgment against the devil. Why "durst not?" Be- 
cause even the loftiest angel cannot pass final judg- 
ment on even such an accuser as the devil. What an 
example he is to men in the proper use of speech and 
in the government of the tongue! 

The altercation was about the "body of Moses." 
The reference is mysterious. Just what is meant, or 
to what Jude alludes, it is by no means easy to de- 
termine. It is unlikely that it is the same contention 
mentioned in Zech. iii : 1 f — the dispute as to Joshua 
the high priest, for the differences between that and 
this are quite marked. Nor was it about Moses* bury- 
ing-place, for the Hebrews were never guilty of an- 
cestral worship, nor of devotions at the tombs of their 
illustrious dead. That idolatrous custom lies at the 
door of Gentiles. Nor was it a dispute as to whether 
Moses' body should have a burial at all. For the 
record tells us that "he buried him in the valley in 
the land of Moab over against Beth-peor : but no 
man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day" (Deut. 
xxxiv: 6). Neither angel nor demon could challenge 
such authority as this. The Lord superintended the 
sepulture of His servant. 



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EPISTLE OF JUDE. 



We believe that Jude refers to Moses' resurrection 
from the dead. Together with the prophet Elijah, 
Moses appeared "in glory" at the Lord's Transfigura- 
tion, and the two heavenly visitants talked with Jesus 
of His decease He was shortly to accomplish at Jeru- 
salem. The two were living men, visible, for they ap- 
peared; audible, for they were speaking with Him; 
recognizable, for they appeared in glory — language 
which plainly indicates that the two had bodily forms. 
Elijah certainly had his body, for he had never passed 
through the gates of death. Moses had died, but God 
closed his eyes and hid his body from mortal sight 
and kept it safe till he should appear in the glorious 
scene on the Mount. It is our belief that it was then 
Moses was raised up from the grave. It may have 
been that the devil resisted his resurrection, and that 
he sought to prevent it, while Michael, the prince who 
stands for Israel, vindicated the Lord's dealing with 
Moses and besought Him to rebuke the accuser. 
"These dreamers" speak evil of those things which 
they know not; Michael knows, yet tempers speech 
with a wise caution. A notable example of self-con- 
trol. 

i (5) Hatred. "Woe unto them! for they have gone 
in the way of Cain." He was the first murderer, a 
wretched fratricide. John says, Cain was of the evil 
one, and slew his brother because his works were evil, 
and his brother's righteousness (1 John iii: 12). Hate 
lies hard by railing, vituperation. Accordingly, a 
malignancy that is murderous reigns in the hearts of 
these apostates. If they offer sacrifice, it is that of 



EPISTLE OF JUDE. 



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Cain; if a saint nearby them is righteous and worships 
acceptably, they are ready to murder him in their 
deadly jealousy and hate. 

(6) Greed. "And ran greedily after the error of 
Balaam for reward/' Three times in the New Testa- 
ment is Balaam mentioned, and in each case with un- 
sparing condemnation. Peter speaks of him as one 
who "loved the wages of unrighteousness" (2 Peter 
ii: 15). John charges him with having "taught Balak 
to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Is- 
rael, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit 
fornication" (Rev. ii: 14). And Jude says he "ran 
greedily after reward," his chief error. Balak's gold 
had an irresistible attraction for him, and have it he 
would even if the angel of the Lord should bar his 
way with drawn sword. He is an instance of light 
resisted, conscience perverted, of crime added to 
crime. What a picture all this furnishes of the temper 
and the spirit of the apostates! 

(7) Rebellion. "Perished in the gainsaying of 
Korah" (vers. 11). The rebellion of Korah and his 
company is recorded in Num. xvi. His gainsaying 
was his denial and repudiation of the leadership of 
Moses and Aaron and rebellion against their authority. 
But this was rebellion against God who had appointed 
these two men to their high office, and accordingly 
the Lord Himself dealt directly with the rebels : earth, 
like an enraged animal, swallowed them alive, a most 
uncommon punishment. Likewise the apostates of 
Jude's epistle despise dominions, scoff at constituted 
authority, and would exalt themselves into the seats 
of dignity and power. 



142 



EPISTLE OF JUDE. 



Such is the dreadful picture which the inspired pen 
of Jude draws of the ungodly and the apostate. It is 
not surprising that he employs the sternest words 
about them, words that fairly burn in their intensity of 
abhorrence : "These are they who are hidden rocks in 
your lovefeasts" — rocks on which the church is in dan- 
ger of shipwreck and destruction: "shepherds" who 
devour the flock; waterless clouds, whirled about by 
fierce winds; fruitless trees, uprooted trees; wild 
waves of the sea which cast up only mire and dirt — 
their own shame; lawless meteors that dart through 
the sky, then go out into a darkness which shall never 
know any light. 

Jude pronounces their doom in the words of Enoch, 
"the seventh from Adam" : "Behold, the Lord cometh 
with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment 
upon all; and to convince all that are ungodly among 
them of all their ungodly deeds which they have un- 
godly committed, and of all their hard speeches which 
ungodly sinners have spoken against him." It is gen- 
erally believed by modern interpreters that this proph- 
ecy of Enoch is quoted by Jude from the apocryphal 
book of Enoch, part of which was written before the 
Christian era and part of it after that time. Granting 
such quotation, that fact does not warrant us to 
affirm that Jude endorsed the book. Paul cites from 
three Greek poets: from Aratus (Acts xvii: 28) ; from 
Meander (1 Cor. xv: 33); and from Epimenides 
(Tit. i: 12). Does anyone imagine that Paul en- 
dorses all these poets wrote? So Jude cites a passage 
from a non-canonical book not because he accepts it as 



EPISTLE OF JUDE. 



143 



Scripture, but because this particular prediction found 
in it is from God and therefore true. In like manner 
Paul quotes a verse from Epimenedes and adds, "This 
testimony is true (Tit. i: 13), but no one would be so 
foolish as to conclude that Paul means the whole poem 
is true. Whence the writer of the book of Enoch de- 
rived the prediction is unknown. It may have been 
preserved as a tradition and faithfully transmitted 
from generation to generation, or in some other way 
preserved. But no one who accepts the Bible as the 
word of God doubts its genuineness and truthfulness 
any more than he doubts Paul's quotation from the 
Lord Jesus in Acts xx : 35, "It is more blessed to give 
than to receive," though whence he derived the pre- 
cious saying is utterly unknown. 

The depraved men of whom Jude writes were 
found in the professing body. They called themselves 
Christians, no doubt, and they sought to be recognized 
as such by the children of God. But in this short epis- 
tle the Spirit God brands them as enemies and apos- 
tates. "No prophecy is of private interpretation" 
(2 Peter i: 20). That is to say, the prophecies of the 
Bible do not originate with the prophets, nor are they 
to be tied up to their times and conditions, nor are 
they exhausted with themselves and their contempo- 
raries. A prediction may be occasioned by conditions 
existing at the time of the prophet, but it is not nec- 
essarily limited to his day and his circumstances. 
Often indeed it starts from a point near the prophet 
himself, but its ultimate and complete fulfilment may 
be in the distant future, the time of the End and the 



144 



EPISTLE OF JUDE. 



Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. It can scarcely "be 
doubted but that this is the characteristic phase of 
Jude's prophecy. Enoch's prediction makes it certain. 
No doubt the conditions of his day were as he so 
graphically describes them. But his message must not 
be confined to these. Jude deals with the final apos- 
tasy from the faith of Christ, of which Paul likewise 
speaks in 2 Thess. ii: 3: "It will not be except the 
falling away come first, and the man of sin be revealed, 
the son of perdition." Peter also bears witness to the 
same awful fact : "Knowing this first, that in the last 
days mockers shall come with mockery, walking after 
their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of 
his coming? for from the day that the fathers fell 
asleep, all things continue as they were from the be- 
ginning of the creation." The "last days" obviously 
point to the time of the End, the final consummation 
when our Lord shall return in majesty and great glory 
to judge the earth in righteousness. 

The time of the "falling away" will be one of 
dreadful wickedness, of unbridled lawlessness, of the 
sway of the worst passions of our fallen humanity, and 
of colossal crimes. So both Peter and Jude picture 
it ; so does Paul, and so do John in the Revelation and 
Daniel in his prophecies. Every thoughtful, believ- 
ing man who sees with clear vision the evil principles 
now at work in human society, and who reads pro- 
phetic Scripture with the open eye and mind, must 
feel profoundly that the "falling away" is near at 
hand if indeed it has not already set in. The tenden- 
cies of the times indicate a breaking away from the 



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authority of the Bible and a change of attitude as to 
truth for which the Christian Church has stood dur- 
ing the centuries of its witness-bearing. The outcome 
of these tendencies Scripture leaves us in no doubt 
about — revolt against the authority of God, the mani- 
festation of the Man of Sin, and the Advent of Jesus 
Christ for judgment and the establishment of His own 
glorious Kingdom. It should be the supreme duty of 
every believer in Christ to heed faithfully the exhorta- 
tion of Jude to "contend earnestly for the faith which 
was once for all delivered unto the saints." 
10 



One copy del. to Cat. Div. 



